charmed with the power of four: season 2
by hvj
Summary: What if Paige was never put up for adoption, but grew up with her sisters in the manor. Meet the power of four: Season 2
1. Witch Trail

**Witch trail**

It's night time. Phoebe walks into the manor. She notices that all the lights are turned off. "Hello? Anybody home? Sister witches, guess what?" Phoebe walks in the living room and turns on the light. She finds Piper making out with a guy on the couch. Piper gets out off the couch.

"Oh, oh. Are you nuts?"

"What are you doing? Hi."

"Hi."

Piper freezes the guy and walks over to Phoebe.

"Sister witches? I can't believe you said that. What's the matter with you?"

"How was I supposed to know that you were gonna be here with anybody? Last I heard that you were meeting a banker friend about the loan." She looks at the guy and then back at Piper. "Is this the credit check?"

"It's not what you think. We were just... we were just kissing, that's all."

Paige comes down the stairs.

"What is all the noise?"

"Oh the ordinary stuff, gone to the store, come home and find Piper snogging with her banker friend."

"Ow."

"Oh please Phoebe, it's not that, you know…"

"Piper, you don't have to justify it. You're single. You're responsible."

"And you're way overdue in the sex department."

Piper and Phoebe look back to Paige, who is still at the top of the stairs.

"I'm not way overdue. Alright, maybe a little, but that's besides the point. You go back up, it's a school night tomorrow."

"Oh, don't remind me, but sleep can wait, I first want to see how this ends."

"Paige!"

Paige looks back at Piper with a grin so Piper starts giving more arguments.

"And you guys know that I would never just sleep with a guy to get something. You know that, right?"

"Piper, give yourself a break. You're going through a lot right now. No job, straining to buy the club, you haven't heard from Leo in weeks."

Prue walks in through the front door. She's on her phone.

"Alright, well, the preview is at five and the auction Sunday at eleven."

"Oh no, Prue. Go back outside. Go on. Hurry!"

Prue looks at them for a second, then goes back outside. Piper gives Paige a look and with a sigh Paige returns to the second floor. Piper goes back into position next to the couch and unfreezes him again.

"So, you must be Prue."

He stands up.

"Uh, no. Actually..."

Phoebe points to the door which Prue reopens, still on the phone. "Alright, great, yeah, I'll see you then." Prue hangs up and stops next to Phoebe, looking curiously at the guy.

"She's Prue. And that…" Phoebe now points to the stairs where Paige is coming down from in a run to end besides Phoebe and Prue. "Is Paige. I'm Phoebe." They all look expectantly at Piper, who turns to her friend.

"Rob, can we take a rain check on the rest of the evening? It's getting kind of crowded in here."

"Okay, sure."

Rob grabs his coat and heads for the door. Piper follows him, companied by her sisters eyes.

"Yeah. Okay, um, so I'll meet you tomorrow at the club at noon. Great. Thanks for dinner."

"Okay, alright." They kiss and Piper opens the door. "Bye."

"Bye."

Rob leaves. Piper closes the door and turns to her sisters, who are grinning.

"So, did you get the loan?"

"Hopefully. I'll find out tomorrow."

"Well, my fingers are crossed."

Prue, Piper and Paige start to leave the room, but Phoebe stops them.

"Wait, you guys. Where are you going?"

"Well, I have an auction coming up. I have clients to call."

"And I'm getting back to my beauty sleep, you know what they say about first impressions."

"Wait, you guys. Don't you even know what tomorrow is? It's our one year anniversary of becoming witches. Hello?"

"Tomorrow is? Really?"

"So..."

"So? So? It's a day to celebrate. And not just because it's our anniversary but because it falls on one of the most powerful wiccan days of the year. The autumnal equinox. Now, according to this witch that I met today at bookstore..."

"Hold it. A witch?"

"You didn't tell her about us, did you?"

"Well, yeah, sure I did. Why not? I mean, I didn't tell her that we're magical witches, obviously. Look, I'm sorry but I think after everything we've been through it's important to learn as much as we can about who we are. Forewarned is forearmed."

"And I think that we should leave well enough alone. I mean, we've been demon-free for over a month now, I'd like to keep it that away."

"Amen to that."

Prue and Piper walk out of the room.

"What about you Paige?"

"I'll think about it in my sleep."

She yawns as she goes back up the stairs.

-c-

The next morning, Phoebe races into the attic cause the sound of pages flipping caught her attention. When she enters, she notices the book of shadow open.

"Prue! Piper! Paige!"

Prue, Piper and Paige, also in their sleeping clothes, come in.

"What's going on?"

"Uh, I don't know!"

"Why does the book do that?"

"A better question: how does the book do that?"

They go over to the book and look at the page it opened up to.

"Rite of passage. Fight it with the power of one or else..."

But Phoebe can't finish her sentence because a vortex opens in the wall and a gust of wind blows them to the side of the attic. A demon is sitting in the vortex. Prue tries to use her power but it doesn't work. The demon lets the book fly towards him and once it's in his hands, the vortex closes.

"What the hell was that?"

"The book of shadows? Where's the book of shadows?"

"So much for being demon-free."

-c-

Prue, Piper and Paige are cleaning the attic up while Phoebe is knocking on the wall where the vortex opened.

"Did you find anything?"

"Nothing. But whatever it was literally came out of nowhere and disappeared into nowhere."

"Well, it took the book of shadows somewhere. And he's powerful too. No other demons been able to steal the book."

"But if he's so powerful, why didn't he kill us?"

"He probably didn't want to go up against you."

"Me? What do you mean?"

All the sisters look at Prue.

"That's what the book of shadows says. Fight it with the power of one. That's gotta mean your power. It's the strongest."

"Says who?"

"Says every demon or warlock we've ever gone up against."

"She's right, Prue. The power of one's gotta mean you, otherwise it would've said the power of four." "The only question is how are we gonna find this demon. We don't know anything about him."

"Well, we better think of something fast because without the book of shadows, we're not the charmed ones anymore."

The doorbell rings and Phoebe heads down the stairs followed by her sisters.

-c-

Phoebe is making her way over to the door while the bell keeps on ringing. "Coming." She walks into the foyer and opens the door. A 16-year old girl, with wet eyes, stands there. "Uh, hi..."

"Can I use your phone, please?"

"Uh, well, actually, we're..."

"Please? It's an emergency. Please?"

"Okay. Come on in. It's right around that corner."

The girl walks in and picks up the phone. Prue, Piper and Paige walk in the foyer.

"Are you out of your mind?"

"What was I supposed to do? Say no? Look at that poor girl."

They look at her, but quickly turn their faces back when they hear a man's voice.

"Jenny? Jenny, come on. Talk to me."

A cute guy in his late 20's lets himself inside. The four sisters all have the same reaction.

"Whoa!"

Jenny is still on the phone, ignoring the man.

"International operator please. Saudi Arabia."

"Saudi Arabia?"

"I'm sorry. We're moving in next door. Or at least we're trying to. Our phone's not hooked up yet."

"So, you're our new neighbours?"

"Name's Dan. Uh, Dan Gordon."

"I don't care if the circuits are busy. I have to talk to my mum."

"And that's my niece Jenny. Who's obviously not talking to me. Jenny, sweetie, come on." Jenny hangs up and storms outside. "I'm sorry. It's nice meeting you."

"You too." Piper lets him out and turns back to her sisters. Phoebe sticks her arm in the air. "I saw him first!"

"Demons now, drooling later."

"Look, I have to meet my client before the preview."

Prue starts to leave.

"Oh, wait a minute. The scariest demon we've ever run across opens up some portal in our attic, and steals the book of shadows and you want to go into the office?" Prue nods and walks up the stairs. Phoebe turns to Piper and Paige. "What's the matter with her?"

"It's the first demon she's faced since Andy died. Maybe it's bringing up some bad memories."

"Well I'm going to get ready too."

"What, Paige!"

"I'm sorry, but I got to go to school and you guys can research things on your own, right? You don't need the power of four for that."

Paige also goes up the stairs.

"I actually am supposed to meet Rob at the club." Phoebe gives Piper also one of her disappointed looks. "But I guess I still have a little time." Phoebe starts smiling and puts an arm around Piper's shoulders.

"Now, that's the spirit."

-c-

The demon, that stole the book of shadows, turns to the back of the book and starts reading the love-spell backwards.

-c-

A couple of women are gathered in the park around a rock. Piper and Phoebe are also there.

"What are we doing here?"

"Celebrating the Equinox. Can't you just feel it? The energy in this place? It's a convergence."

"It's a rock. I thought we were supposed to meet your witch friend."

"We are. This is where she told us to meet her. Now, please just relax."

"Relax? My life was a mess before our little wake up call this morning, remember?"

A woman arrives and Phoebe runs over to her, followed by Piper.

"Oh, Stevie!"

"Hey, Phoebe. I'm so glad you could make it."

"Um, actually, we are not here for this. We needed to talk to you about something. This is my sister, Piper."

"Hi."

"Hey, Piper, it's very nice to meet you. Are you witch too?"

"Uh, sorta... maybe... I don't know. Uh, is everybody here one, also?"

"Oh, no. It's just a group of believers, women who know of this special place and who've come to celebrate. By the way, happy anniversary."

"That's what we wanted to talk to you about. Why did you say that today was gonna be a powerful day for us?"

"Because your anniversary falls on the Equinox. Which is a powerful day in and of itself for you, this convergence of powers is even stronger. The potential greater. All you have to do is connect. You wanna try it?"

"Try it? How?"

"Let us begin."

Stevie joins the other women.

"I don't wanna connect."

"We have to connect."

"I don't wanna try it."

"Okay, but we have to because..."

"Why?"

"What have we got to lose, okay?"

Piper and Phoebe turn around and notice all the women are taking off their clothes.

"Well, apparently we've got our clothes to lose."

"I see that."

Phoebe pulls Piper back in the circle and Phoebe undoes her zipper.

"No. Whoa, Whoa. Wait. What are you doing?"

"When in Rome…"

"No, no, no! We're not in Rome, Phoebe. We're in California. And it's illegal here."

"It's totally natural, okay? Go for it. Come on."

Piper lets her dress fall to the ground.

"God. This is ridiculous. Can I keep my shoes on?"

"Yeah, but that's it."

"We've got absolutely zero, zero information."

"Everybody's naked, not just you."

"And now we're naked."

"Shh, okay? Shh."

Suddenly Phoebe hears a voice.

"The power of four.

"Did you just hear that?"

"Hear what?"

The voice continues.

"The power of four."

"That. Grams?"

"Grams?" Piper looks around and tries to cover herself up. "What? Where? I don't hear anything."

-c-

A woman is looking at some items up for auction when Prue walks in the room. She goes over to the woman, who is noticeably having a difficult time.

"Mrs. Milton. Hi. I'm sorry to keep you waiting."

"Oh, no problem. I was just looking around."

"Well, I think that we'll have a great turnout for the preview. We've been getting an excellent response to your husband's collection."

"I'm not surprised."

"Now, the opening bid prices may look a little low, but don't worry. It should attract a lot of buyers, which should result in a bidding war. It's the best way to sell inventory like this at top dollar. Is that all right with you?"

"I guess I'm having a little more trouble letting go of John's things than I thought."

"That's only natural. It's not easy."

"I suppose that you deal with death quite a bit in your line of work, don't you?" Prue gets nervous, thinking that the woman means being a witch. "I mean, like this, auctioning off some poor widows inheritance." She lets go of her breath, relieved.

"This? Unfortunately, yes."

"I just keep going over and over in my mind the last time I saw him before the accident. And I keep thinking if only I'd done something or said something to stop him from getting in the car, maybe he'd still be alive."

Prue looks down as she remembers the last time she saw Andy.

-c-

Outside a large building that's up for sale Piper pulls up in her car. She gets out and walks inside. Rob is already there, looking around. Piper comes down the stairs.

"Oh, god, Rob. I'm so sorry I'm late. Uh, I got stuck at this thing and then my sister needed a ride, and I'm so totally screwed on the loan now, aren't I?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm just looking around, checking things out."

"It needs a lot of work, uh, I know that. But that's not a problem and just because the last two owners went bankrupt, doesn't mean it can't work. I've done three separate marketing studies and found a 68% interest in the target clientele."

"Piper..."

"Plus, running a restaurant is very similar to running a club."

"You've already shown me all this. I've got it. I've got everything, except for an understanding of why you wanna put yourself in a position to fail like this."

"Uhh..."

"Clubs are an extremely high risk business, Piper. You could lose your shirt."

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time today."

"What?"

"Nevermind. Look, I know what I'm getting myself into. I know the risks and actually it's a lot less risk and a lot a less expensive than starting my own restaurant, which is what I really wanted to do. The point is, I'm tired of working for somebody else and helping them realizing their dreams. I wanna run my own place. This place. And I can do it, too. But not without your help."

"Well, at the risk of you never wanting to go out with me again... Congratulations."

"I got it?"

"You go it"

"Yay!"

Piper hugs him and they kiss.

-c-

The demon is saying another spell backwards which makes Jeremy appear wielding a knife.

"Were you vanquished by the charmed ones?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I'm giving you a second chance."

-c-

Piper and Rob are still kissing when Piper also hears the voice.

"The power of four."

Piper pulls away.

"Did you hear that?"

"The power of four."

"Hear what?"

Piper looks around.

"Grams?"

Suddenly Jeremy appears behind Rob and knocks him unconscious. Piper screams and backs away.

"You're dead, witch."

Piper freezes him.

"Oh my God. Jeremy?"

-c-

Prue's sitting at her desk. The phone rings.

"Hello?"

"Prue, thank god you're there. Jeremy..."

"Piper, calm down."

"…Just attacked me."

"Jeremy? That is impossible. We vanquished him a year ago."

"Well, apparently he got unvanquished somehow. And since we don't have the book of shadows, we're gonna have to remember the spell together. I'm conferencing Phoebe and Paige." She presses a button on the phone.

"Paige?"

"Here, but not for long, my class is about to start."

"And Phoebe, are you there too?"

"AT&T, the power of four."

"Okay, wait. Wasn't that it? The power of four, evil be no more?"

"Grams..."

Jeremy unfreezes. "Whoa!" Piper freezes him again.

"What's the matter?"

"He's..." Jeremy unfreezes again and Piper has to freeze him again, while walking away. "He's fighting through my freezes. He's adjusting or something."

"Uh, okay, put us on the speakerphone. We have to say it together."

Jeremy unfreezes. Piper lays the phone on the machine while pushing a button, she backs away.

"You're not getting away from me this time."

Jeremy attacks her with his dagger but she ducks right in time.

"Piper!"

"Hurry! Now! Hurry, now, now, now!"

They all starts chanting. "_The power of four, evil be no more_." They keep repeating it until Jeremy explodes again.

"Piper?"

"Are you alright?'

"Piper?"

"It's okay. He's gone. Again."

"Alright, see you later. I've bought some new books, I'm going to look trough them."

Phoebe hangs up.

"Bye, oh Piper could you pick me up in an hour?"

"Sure, see you then."

Paige is also gone.

"Alright, I'm coming over."

"Prue, that's not necessary."

"Piper! I'll be right there."

-c-

A few minutes later, the paramedics are there. They put Rob on a stretcher. Piper is crouching down beside him.

"How can you not have seen who attacked me? How is that possible?"

"I don't know. I guess I was blocked or something and then he just sort of disappeared, you know?"

"I'm starting to understand why this place keeps going under."

"Oh, no. It's not a bad crime area. Not at all."

"Well, it's something I'm going to be checking into. I can assure you of that."

"Excuse me, ma'am."

The paramedics carry Rob up the stairs. Prue walks past and looks at him.

"Yeah, hi, how ya doin'?"

Prue ignores him and goes over to Piper.

"Are you okay?"

"Physically, yeah. I think my loan's on shaky ground. I couldn't exactly tell Rob, It was just a warlock. Don't worry about it."

"Oh, it would be a shame if the loan didn't work out, I mean, this place is great. I used to come here. It has a lot of potential."

"Yeah? You think so? Care to loan me sixty grand?"

"Hmm. Any ideas on where Jeremy came from?"

"No, but I don't want to run into any of the other demons we've already vanquished."

"Well, hopefully Phoebe can find some answers in those new books of hers."

"I sure wish she had our book to look it at. Feels kind of lost without it. Although..."

"Although what?"

"It was weird but right before Jeremy appeared, I swore I heard grams."

"Grams?"

"I was positive it was her. She said the power of four. And Phoebe said she heard her say it this morning. Maybe grams was trying to warn me, warn us."

-c-

Phoebe is at home, busy on her laptop. She hears Kit meow and looks out the window. She sees Jenny sitting on the stairs next door, holding Kit. Phoebe continues to type on her computer but changes her mind and goes outside. She walks over to Jenny and sits down next to her.

"Hey there. It's Jenny, right?"

"Yeah."

"We didn't really get to say hello before. My name is Phoebe. Phoebe Halliwell. And this is Kit the cat. Get it? Kit Kat. Little play on words. So, shouldn't you be in school?"

"I'm taking a week off."

"Really?"

"For the move, you know."

"So you're moving in with your uncle?"

"Well, just for the school year. Until my mom and dad come back."

"From Saudi Arabia?"

"My dad's with the state department. So, he gets transferred a lot."

"That sucks. So, did you ever get in touch with your mum?"

"It doesn't matter."

"If it matters to you, it matters. Your secret is safe with me."

"Well, it's almost that time of the month, you know? And, well, I need some..."

"Tampons?"

"Right, yeah."

"And you don't want talk to your uncle about it?"

"But I did. But he went out and bought sanitary napkins."

"Ugh."

"Like that's gonna work. This is so embarrassing." Phoebe's attention gets caught by Kit's collar, which has the quadquetra symbol hanging from it. "So, do you think maybe you could get some for me instead?" She doesn't listen to Jenny anymore.

"Uh... sure... but... a connection."

"But what?"

Piper and Paige pull up in the driveway next door.

"Uh, I'm really sorry, Jenny, but I have to go."

Phoebe picks up Kit and leaves Jenny disappointed on the stairs.

"Fine."

She turns back around.

"Look. I would love to help you out but I gotta believe that your parents wouldn't have left you with your uncle if they didn't think you could trust him at stuff like this. Ask him again. And if he still screws it up, remember, we're open 24 hours, 7 days a week, right next door, okay?"

Jenny smiles. Phoebe goes back over to the manor.

"Paige, Piper, wait up. I think I figured out how to find who the demon is. All we have to do is ask the book of shadows."

"What?"

"It's been right in front of us the whole time."

She shows them Kit's collar.

"Kit's collar?"

"No, the quadquetra. The symbol of the power of four. Our symbol. Maybe that's what grams has been trying to tell us."

"Phoebe, you're rambling."

"No, Stevie said all we would have to do is find our connection, right? That if we did, we'd be able to tap into the power of the Equinox. Well, this has got to be it, the quadquetra. It's us. It's on the cover of the book of shadows."

"I still don't understand how can we ask the book of shadows for help when we don't have the book."

Phoebe pulls Piper and Paige inside.

-c-

Paige, Piper and Phoebe are standing in front of the spirit board.

"The spirit board?"

"It told us how to find the book of shadows, didn't it? It can do it again. All you have to do is believe. Now come on. We're stronger together."

"Okay."

Paige takes the pointer and puts it on the spirit board. The others also put their fingers on it.

"Come on. Okay. Close your eyes and feel it."

There is a sudden wind an they all hear grams' voice.

"The power of four."

"Did you hear that?"

"Grams?"

Paige looks around while the pointer starts moving.

"A."

"B-R-A-X-A-S."

"Abraxas?"

They look at each other.

-c-

The demon turns to another spell in the book of shadows and starts to read it backwards.

-c-

Piper and Paige are sitting on the couch in the living room. Phoebe walks in, reading from a book.

"Okay, I found it. Abraxas: A demon of the astral plane who destroy witches by demonising their powers. Okay, but what does that have to do with the book of shadows?"

"Well, that's where our powers come from, isn't it? Maybe Abraxas it turning it evil somehow."

"That would definitely undo our spells. And explain why Jeremy all of a sudden became unvanquished."

"And the woogyman."

"The woogyman?"

"When did the woogyman become unvanquished?"

"A couple of seconds ago."

Phoebe and Paige look around and see the woogyman coming towards them. They all jump up.

"Freeze it."

"It doesn't freeze, remember? The spell. What's the spell? Spell, spell..."

The woogyman starts surrounding them.

"_I am light. I am one too strong to fight._ I can't remember the rest."

"Phoebe! Piper!"

They notice that the woogyman is surrounding Paige's neck, making it harder for her to breath.

"Yes you can. Okay, we can. Uh, _Return to dark, where the shadows dwell. You cannot have this Halliwell_."

The woogyman gets surrounded itself by white lights. Paige, Piper and Phoebe end the spell together.

"_Go away and leave my sight. And take with you this endless night._"

The Woogyman gets vanquished.

"That wasn't so hard."

"It's a good thing we were together."

"Definitely."

"Abraxas must be reading the book backwards. That's how he's turning it evil."

"How do you figure?"

"The spell to vanquish Jeremy was at the back of the book. And the spell to vanquish the woogyman was right before that."

"Which means more are on their way."

"Uh-huh."

"We gotta warn Prue."

"Uh-huh." They walk into the foyer and Phoebe touches a photo frame. She gets a premonition. _Nicholas, the warlock, attacking Prue at Bucklands._ "What? What happened?"

"I saw the warlock Nicholas, killing Prue."

-c-

Prue is walking down the corridor of Buckland. She stops when she sees Mrs. Milton. Prue's assistant approaches her.

"Prue, your sister Phoebe's on the phone."

"Oh, uh, tell her that I'll call her back."

"She said it's important."

"She always says that it's important. Just tell her I'll call her back. It's okay. Thanks." Prue goes over to Mrs. Milton. "Mrs. Milton."

"Oh, hi."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

"I had no idea there'd be this many people interested. You're obviously very good at your job."

"Actually, I think it says more your husband's collection than it does about me. How long has it been since the accident?"

"Eight and a half months. How long has it been for you?"

"Not very long." Nicholas appears out of nowhere. He spots Prue. "Nicholas." Prue walks off. Nicholas follows her. Prue races into her office. Nicholas stands at the doorway and points his ring at her.

"You remember the feeling, don't you?"

Prue falls to the floor.

"_Lavender, mimosa, holy thistle, cleanse this evil from our midst scatter_..."

"You're overheating. Your brain cells are frying. It's over."

"_Scatter its cells throughout time. Let this Nick no more exist_."

Nicholas shatters into pieces and Prue collapses to the floor.

-c-

Prue is lying on a bed while a doctor is taking her blood pressure. Piper, Phoebe and Paige are standing beside her.

"Well, your blood pressure's back to normal. So is your temperature, your electrolytes. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were perfectly healthy young woman."

"Does that mean I can go home now?"

"Well, I'd like to run a few more tests. Find out what caused your body temperature to rise spontaneously like that. Has that ever happened to you before?"

"It's happened to us all before."

Phoebe laughs but stops when she sees her Prue's angry look.

"Doctor, it's okay. Really. I think I know how to keep it from happening again."

"All right. I'll see to your discharge papers."

"Thanks."

The doctor leaves and Prue gets up.

"That was close."

"Too close."

"No, I don't mean her. I mean you. The paramedics said you almost died."

"Yeah, well, what else is new?"

"We better figure out a way to get the book back from Abraxas because if we don't, we're all dead."

"But how? We don't know where the astral plane is."

"Yes, we do. It coexists within our own plane. Remember, that's what Stevie said."

"Still doesn't help to find the demon."

"Maybe, maybe not. I was thinking... You know how we always thought that nobody could take the book of shadows out of the house but us? Maybe nobody did. Maybe it's still in the house. Just on different plane. The astral plane."

"That would mean Abraxas is still in the house too."

"Right. So, we would need to find a doorway or a window to get to his, like he used to get to ours and we need to do this before the end of the Equinox, by sunrise tomorrow. And then Prue can kick some astral ass with the power of one."

Prue grabs her stuff and leaves the room. Piper, Phoebe and Paige follow. They walks towards the exit.

"Prue, what's the matter?"

"Nothing. I just think that it's a long shot, that's all."

"Well, at least it's a shot."

"I agree, I mean, who knows how many other demons and warlocks he's let loose that we just don't know about yet."

"Or even worse. If Abraxas gets to the first page of the book before we get to him, we're toast."

"Why?"

"Because it's the incantation that gave us our powers, remember? If Abraxas says that backwards too, then we'll lose them and the book forever."

"So we go back to leading normal lives again. That doesn't sound so bad."

Phoebe stops Prue.

"What? Are you joking?"

"No, Phoebe, I'm not joking. Look, we always said that things happen to us for a reason, right? So, maybe the reason this time is to give to us an out."

"Prue, there's no out. Abraxas will kill us."

"Not if all he wants is the book. After all, that's the real power, not us."

"If all he wanted was the book, he wouldn't keep sending demons and warlocks after us."

"Yeah, well, we won't have to worry about anymore if he gets to the first page."

"What are you saying, Prue? Look, if we don't get to him, we stop being witches."

"Exactly. Which means we stop risking our lives all the time. Which means we stop watching the people we love lose theirs."

Prue walks away.

"Prue..."

Piper stops Paige from following.

"Let her be."

-c-

Piper, Phoebe and Paige are in the kitchen. Phoebe's sitting at the table, Paige is getting something out of the cupboard and Piper is looking for something in the fridge.

"We're screwed, you know."

"No, we're not. There's a window, we'll find it."

"That's not what I meant."

Paige sits down at the table, holding cookies, she holds them out to Phoebe, but Phoebe rejects them.

"She'll come around."

"By sunrise? You know how Prue is when she makes up her mind about something. That's it. We're screwed."

Phoebe takes a cookie.

"And we're out of wine."

The doorbell rings. Phoebe gets up.

"I'll get it. Paige, you keep dreaming. Piper, you keep looking."

-c-

Phoebe opens the door to find Dan, holding a bottle of wine.

"Oh, hi..."

"Dan."

"Dan, right."

"You're Phoebe. Jenny told me. I hope it's okay to stop by."

"Of course, uh, we were just doing some reading."

"Well, I just wanted to give you this." He hands her the wine. "To say thanks. You know, for talking to Jenny. Or better yet, for getting her to talk to me."

"That's really sweet. And timely too. But it's not necessary."

"Well, to be honest, I was sort of hoping to get something out of it. I mean, you know, for Jenny. Just in case she needs a woman to talk to again."

"Ah, of course. Any time. She seems like a great kid. So, did she tell you what the problem was?"

They laugh.

"Any idea what size I'm supposed to get. There's like... five."

"Uh, junior is probably a safe bet."

"Right. Thanks."

"Hm."

The phone rings.

"Well, uh, see ya around."

"Hopefully. 'Night."

"'Night."

Dan leaves. Phoebe checks out his butt as he walks away and gets an approving look.

-c-

Piper's on the phone when Phoebe walks back into the kitchen. She sits back down at the table taking another cookie.

"Who is on the phone?"

"Piper's bank friend's assistant."

"No, I understand. Okay, bye."

She hangs up.

"And? What's the verdict?"

"My loan has been denied."

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry."

Phoebe and Paige get up and hug her.

"Cookie? That always helps me when I feel down."

"That's okay. Just wasn't meant to be, I guess. Really glad I never slept with him, though. What was I thinking?"

"About Leo, maybe?"

"Ugh."

"Wine?"

Phoebe holds up the bottle of wine.

-c-

Prue walks up to Darryl in the police station.

"Hey."

"Hi."

"You wanna sit down?"

"Sure."

They walk forward, but Prue stops when she sees Andy's empty desk. "They haven't assigned me a new partner yet since Andy died. Here." He takes her into a room, they sit down on a bench.

"Listen, I'm sorry I haven't come by to see you."

"Yeah, me too. I'm just glad you're here now, Prue. I've been worried about you."

"I'm alright."

"Really? Then how come you've been avoiding me? And don't give me back that crap about being too busy 'cause I know better. I know what you're going through, Prue. I lost him too, you know?"

"I know. It's just been so hard, to, uh..."

"What?"

"To face you after what happened."

"Now, see, that's exactly what I want to talk to you about..."

"Darryl, um, I need to know what Andy told you about me and my sisters... about who we really are."

"Just that you were involved in some of our unsolved cases, and that you somehow helped stop the killers."

"That's it? Nothing else?"

"He was my partner, Prue. I didn't need to know anything else."

"So, then, um... why did you cover for us when Andy died at the house?"

"Cause he asked me to. That's why I've been trying to get a hold of you. To give you a message from him. That morning, after he saw you, Andy told me to tell you that if anything were to happen to him, that it wouldn't be your fault. He didn't want you to blame yourself."

"Too late."

They hug.

-c-

Piper, Phoebe and Paige are in the attic. Piper has drawn the quadquetra symbol on the wall with chalk.

"You really think that's the window?"

"You said yourself the quadquetra's the key, our connection. And besides, we keep hearing grams say the power of four. This is what that stands for. Either that or I just screwed up this wall for no reason."

"Well, even if it is the window, if Prue doesn't show up..."

Prue walks in.

"She'll show. Better late then never, right? Look, I know that I haven't exactly been myself lately and I know that I'm going through... something. And that I have some things to work through. But I don't wanna let you down because of it. Right now, it's not about me. It's about us."

"Attagirl, Prue. I knew you'd come around."

Paige looks at Phoebe.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, I did deep down."

"Are you sure you're up for this?"

Prue uses her power to move a chair across the room.

"I'm sure."

"Okay, so when the window opens, Prue, you'll knock Abraxas away from the book, so Piper and I can reach in and grab it. And then, while you're holding him back..."

"You'll find some spell to vanquish him I got it."

"Okay."

They walk towards the wall. "Okay. We have to create a circle." They join hands. "Three, two, one." Piper and Phoebe touch the wall and it opens up. Abraxas appears. "Hold on. Now, Prue, now!"

"First the book, then you."

"What's the matter with you?"

"Prue, use your power."

"Prue!"

Abraxas pushes them away and they slide across the floor. The portal closes. Paige, Phoebe and Piper look angrily at Prue.

-c-

Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige are walking down the stairs.

"Prue, what happened up there?"

"Nothing."

"Yeah, nothing is exactly the problem."

They enter the dining room and stop. Prue turns towards her sisters.

"I never said that I had the power to go against him. You did, remember?"

"No, the book of shadows did."

"Well, maybe it was wrong. Maybe Abraxas is just too strong."

"Maybe, but that doesn't explain why you hesitated."

"I didn't hesitate."

"The hell you didn't Prue. I saw you."

"We all saw you."

"So, what are you saying? This is my fault, is that it? Because I can't defeat Abraxas?"

"No, Prue, you can. You just won't. Okay, something is holding you back. Something big time and instead of facing it, you're running from it."

Prue's eyes are getting wet.

"Phoebe..."

"But you can't keep running, Prue. Because you have got to figure out what your problem is, otherwise we're all dead."

Prue starts to cry.

"That's right, Phoebe. It's my responsibility, isn't it? The oldest sister, always supposed to be able to figure things out. Well, if that's the case, then how come I couldn't save Andy? If I'm supposed to be so powerful, how come I couldn't save him? I mean, my god, don't you understand? Andy died because of me, it doesn't matter what he said, it was my fault. How could it be good to be witches if all it does is get the people we love killed?"

"Oh, sweetie."

"Prue, it's not your fault. You tried to keep Andy from coming here that night, remember? You tried to warn him but he came anyway. He came because he wanted to."

"And there was nothing that you could have done to stop him, Prue. He chose to walk through that door, not because of who you are, honey, but because of who he was."

"Protector of the innocent, just like us."

"I just don't know if I believe in it anymore."

"Honey, we've done a lot of good as witches too. You know that. But that doesn't mean that bad things still aren't gonna happen. But just because we can't help that, doesn't mean that is our fault."

"Or yours."

"Come here."

They all hug causing a wind to blow trough the house and the voice of grams to be heard.

"The power of four."

They look around.

"Okay, did you guys hear that?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Grams?"

"The power of four."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know but it's gotta to be a good thing if we're all hearing it."

"Maybe it means we're connected."

"To be as one. Maybe that's what the book meant by the power of one."

"The four of us working as one."

"Which is what the quadquetra represents."

Phoebe looks at her watch.

"Almost sunrise. Do you think you're ready to try the window again?"

"Yeah, yeah, but Abraxas will be ready for us here. We have to take him by surprise, go where we're most powerful, where we're most connected."

-c-

Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige have joined hands around the stone in the park. They start chanting together.

"_Hear now the words of the witches, the secrets we hid in the night, the oldest of Gods are invoked here, the great work of magic is sought_. _In this night, and in this hour we call upon the ancient power_."

-c-

The pages of the book of shadows turn over so Abraxas can't continue reading. He turns back to the spell that gave them their powers and continues to read it backwards.

-c-

"_Hear now the words of the witches, the secrets we hid in the night, the oldest of Gods are invoked here, the great work of magic is sought_."

-c-

The book closes and starts falling down.

-c-

The book drops out from the sky and lands on the rock.

"Prue, Piper, Paige..."

"Keep chanting."

"_Hear now the words of the witches, the secrets we hid in the night..._"

Abraxas appears above them

"What are you doing? How'd you bring me here?"

"_The oldest of Gods are invoked here, the great work of magic is sought. In this night, and in this hour we call upon the ancient power. In this night, and in this hour we call upon the ancient power. In this night, and in this hour we call upon the ancient power._"

Abraxas gets vanquished. Phoebe grabs the book.

"And we didn't even have to get naked."

-c-

Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige are in the attic. Prue places the book of shadows back on its stand.

"That's more like it."

She flips through it. Piper walks over to the wall, holding a cloth.

"I'll feel better when we erase that window. I don't want any more demons coming through it."

"They can't. It's our window, not theirs."

"Still, better safe than sorry. Especially if we can expect any more demons like Abraxas coming."

"Well, apparently we can." Prue starts reading. "Rite of Passage. Fight it with the power of one, or else... a more powerful evil that awaits will destroy you".

"Wow. I'm glad I didn't finish reading that yesterday. I might have changed my mind about not wanting to give up our powers."

"No, you wouldn't have. You like being a witch too much, Phoebe. And you help remind me that I like being one too."

"Me too."

"Hey, me four. Too bad it doesn't pay the bills, though."

Paige turns to Prue.

"Did you get it?"

"Mm-hmm."

Phoebe, Paige and Prue happily go over to Piper. "Get what?" They hand Piper an envelope. "What's this?" She looks at it. "$60,000? Where did you get this?"

"Home equity loan. Phoebe, Paige and I took a second out on the house. To help you buy your club."

"Actually, our club technically."

"Right, as long as you don't mind being partners with your sisters."

"Thank you!"

They all hug.

"The power of four."

They pages turn of the book turn and grams' spirit appears. They turn around and see her.

"Grams?"

"Hello, my darlings. Oh, it's nice to see you, or rather, it's nice being seen by you."

"But how is this..."

"Possible? All things are possible, my dear. It's just simply a matter of your being able to do them."

"Wait, so you're the one that keeps turning the pages in the book?"

"Just my way of looking after you. As best I can, anyway. Don't try to understand this. You're not ready yet. But the fact that you could hear me before, can see me now, means that someday you might be. Be good to each other. I love you."

Grams disappears. The book turns to a page.

"Is it just me, or is this attic getting awfully crowded lately?"

They go over and look at the page.

"Look."

Grams has written Happy Anniversary, My Darlings in the book.


	2. Morality bites

**Morality bites**

Paige is coming down the stairs right when Piper opens the door. She is holding a couple of grocery bags while looking at her shoe.

"What is wrong?"

"Oh, Paige, can you give me a hand?" Paige takes the bags from Piper. "Thanks."

"So? What happened?"

Piper shows Paige her shoe which has poo on it.

"Ew. Wait, is this from the same guy that…"

"Yeah, that's him."

They enter the kitchen where Prue and Phoebe already are. They immediately smell something.

"What did you buy?"

"Doody."

"We weren't out of that."

Prue sarcastically says, Phoebe and Paige laugh as Paige sets the bags on the counter. Piper undoes her shoe and shows them the bottom.

"No, I stepped in it again. That man has turned our front walk into a puppy mine field."

"I can not believe that guy still lets his dog do his business right in front of our house."

"Yeah, well, we've left notes."

"And gotten no where."

Phoebe is starting to get angry. "Yeah, well, I've had it. The next time I catch him in the act, I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind." As in agreement, they hear a dog barking.

"That couldn't be."

"Oh, I hope it is."

They run to the front of the house and look out the window. They see a man with a dog, the dog is doing his thing in front of their house.

"That's them. That's the guy and his dog. I can't believe it."

"That is so rude. He's just gonna walk away."

"Then don't let him. Use your magic." The three of them look sceptically at Phoebe. "Well, if you can't teach the dog new tricks, how about the owner. Just think the money we'd save on carpet cleaning alone."

"Phoebe, we can't use our magic just to teach him or anybody else a lesson."

"Why not? It's for the greater good, I mean, I mean, that's our job, right? Think of it as community service. We'd be doing our whole block a favour." She sees that she has swayed them over and opens the window. "Come on. Okay, Piper."

"I hope he's not out of my range."

She freezes the guy.

"Prue..." Prue flicks the poo on his shoe. "Nice shot." He unfreezes. "An eye for an eye, a shoe for a shoe." The guy sees the poo on his shoe and tries to wipe it off. He looks around. When he turns towards the room the sisters hide. Phoebe is the last one to get away from the window.

"Did he see you?"

"So what if he did? What's he gonna do? Cry witch?" The guy walks off. "Well, we've done our good deed for the day. I think I deserve fifteen minutes of channel surfing." Phoebe lets herself drop in the couch.

"Who wants coffee?"

"I'll grind."

Prue and Piper go to the kitchen. Paige sits next to Phoebe while Phoebe turns on the TV. A news report about a baseball-player, Cal Greene, shows up. Phoebe gets hit with a premonition. _She sees a television show in which a man points towards something. That something is Phoebe being burned on the stake while Piper, Prue and Paige are standing at the side, doing nothing._ Phoebe breaths in heavily. "Phoebe are you okay?" Phoebe sits up straight while Paige puts her arm around her. "Prue, Piper! Phoebe, what happened?" Prue and Piper come in while Paige is still trying to sooth Phoebe.

"Take a deep breath, honey, it's alright."

"No, it's not. I saw my future. I was being executed. Burnt alive."

Prue turns to Paige.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, we were watching the news, it was about that Cal Greene guy, you know, the baseball-player."

"Why would a report about a baseball player trigger a premonition like that?"

"I don't know. All I know is I could feel it, I could feel the fire."

"And where were we?"

"You were watching while doing nothing."

"We were just standing there? That can't be right."

"That's what I saw."

"There's no way that we would let that happen, not in the past, present or future."

"What did I do? Or what is it that I'm going to do?"

The doorbell rings.

"That will be Leo, I'll get that."

Piper goes over to the door and opens it to find Peter.

"Hey Peter, how are things going?"

"The same as always. I'm here for Paige."

"I already figured that out. Paige! It's for you."

"For me." Paige turns around the corner. "Oh, hey Peter." She hugs him and he kisses her on the cheek. "What are you doing here?"

"Can't a guy come by to visit his girlfriend?"

"Off course, but…"

"But what?"

"Nothing, my sister has some troubles again."

"Oh, your sisters have a lot of troubles. You aren't hiding another guy from me, are you?"

"Off course not."

"Well, I guess I'm off again then. Call me when the problem is solved?"

"Off course, till then."

She kisses him and closes the door. Peter, surprised by the quick goodbye, leaves the front porch. Paige hasn't had the chance to enter the living room, before the doorbell rang again. She turns around to answer it, but Piper gets sooner to the door. "That's Leo. I'll get that." Piper gives Paige a meaningful look, who gets the hint and disappears into the living room. Piper looks one last time in the mirror on her side and opens the door. "Hey, stranger."

"Is that what I am now?"

"Playing hooky?"

"No, they're making me work tonight so I've got the afternoon off."

He gets in and they hug.

"The old 'I gotta save the world' excuse again?"

"Like you've never had to use it."

"Ahh..."

"You're about to use it."

"Well, there's just something I have to do. Maybe you could..."

A jingle is heard. Piper looks around, not knowing where it comes from, while Leo looks up.

"Now?"

A few other jingles are heard.

"Uh... Leo?"

"It's okay, uh, you go. There's actually something I have to take care of."

"Well, we really need to talk about things, you know, where we stand."

"Yeah, we do. Rain check?"

"That's what we do best." They kiss and Leo orbs out in the middle of the kiss. Piper stands a few seconds with her arms around nothing. "I hate when he does that." She re-enters the living room.

-c-

Leo orbs into the attic, in front of the book of shadows. He holds out his hands above it and the pages start flipping. He hears Piper, Prue, Paige and Phoebe coming up the stairs.

"So, what did he want?"

Leo disappears. The pages on the book keep turning.

"He cancelled our date. He's working again."

"You didn't ask him what to do?"

"He had to fly... literally. The pages were doing that flipping thing on their own again."

They stop in front of the book and look at what the page says.

"It's a spell to take us to the future."

"Two actually. One to send us, one to bring us home. But apparently we only get one shot. Once we use it they disappear."

"Wait a minute, you guys. We almost died going back to the past. This is not something that you just do."

"We're talking about your life, Phoebe."

"And I'm talking about yours, Prue. I'm just saying I think we should think this over a little bit."

"Look, you had that premonition today for a reason. It must mean that we're supposed to do something about it. And going to the future might be the only way to find out what you did to put you on that pyre."

"How do you know it's something that I did? I mean, it might be a demon or a warlock that puts me there."

"Do you really want to wait to find out? Okay, pack your bags, we go, try to figure out what happened and hopefully come back with enough information to stop it." The sisters sit down at a table. "We're gonna need a date, Phoebe."

"February 12, 2009. That's two weeks before the date I saw in my premonition."

"Alright, that should give us more than enough time to figure out what put you there."

Prue starts writing.

"I wonder how I look?"

"Piper, you look great but this is hardly the time..."

"Not now. In the future. When we went back to the seventies we saw ourselves as kids and now we'll be seeing ourselves walk around ten years older. All that vanquishing. Think of the wear and tear."

"Lets not think about that right now."

"Right." Prue lights a match and burns the paper. "_Hear these words, hear the rhyme."_

Piper says the next line. "_We send to you this burning sign_."

Phoebe continues. "_Then our future selves will find_."

And Paige finishes. "_In another place and time_."

They change into lights.

-c-

One of the lights is still in the manor and goes into a sleeping Piper on the couch. She wakes up when a little girl runs in.

"Mummy, mummy, mummy."

"Uh, I think you have the wrong house. Certainly the wrong mummy."

"Stop fooling." The little girl hugs Piper. A car honks. "Car pool." She runs off. Piper looks in the mirror and notices that she looks quite differently.

"Ooh." She sees a wedding ring on her finger. "Ooh!" While looking in the mirror she notices a report about Phoebe that's showing on the TV. "Phoebe. Where's the volume?" She looks around for a remote. The sound gets louder by itself.

"_More news on the execution of Phoebe Halliwell coming up in just a moment. Now back to your regular scheduled programming MTV's real world eighteen on the moon_."

"Mum, I'm gonna be late."

"Okay, uh, TV shut up. Mute. Something."

The TV's volume goes back down as Piper walks to the door. A friendly looking woman is standing there.

"Morning, Piper. You alright?"

"I guess."

"Yeah, with your sister, it's rough, I know. So, don't worry about your little one. I'll get her to school like you asked but uh, are you sure you want me to take her to your ex's?"

"Ex? As in husband? As in mine? Yes, if that is what I told you, then yes."

"So, you and him are getting along better now?"

"Maybe. Prue? Paige?"

"Okay, let's hit the road."

The girl hugs Piper again and whispers in her ear.

"Don't worry, mummy. I promise I'll do what you ask. I won't use my magic again ever."

The girl runs out and into the car. Piper goes outside and watches them drive off. A limo pulls up. A blonde Prue and her assistants get out of the limo. They fuss over her by brushing and touching her. Prue gets up the stairs while trying to get them off her. She turns around frustrated.

"Hey, hey. Okay, enough! People stop touching me. Stay, stay, stay."

The assistant stay foot while Prue goes over to Piper.

"Prue, what's going on?"

"I don't know, but I could really get used to this. Check me out. I don't just work at Bucklands, I own it. And three more. Paris, Tokyo and London."

"And you're blonde."

Prue takes a long blonde lock in her hand.

"Yeah, strange."

"Wait, you had time to go to work already?"

"Well, actually, I woke up there but it was amazing. I had all these assistants and this huge office and I have a chauffeur and he's so totally hot. How'd you do?" Piper laughs. "Is that a good thing or...?"

They walk inside.

"Well, if you ignore my apparently failed marriage and the fact that I still live in the manor."

"You are married?"

"Was. Do you think Paige still lives here? Paige! Are you upstairs?"

A strawberry red Paige descends the stairs, she is holding a couple of pictures. "Alright check this out." She shows them four pictures of her in four different wedding dresses with four different guys and with four different hair colours. "I've been married four times."

"But as you're still carrying a ring on your finger, I think you've only divorced three times."

"Great."

"What's with the changing hair colour?"

Prue points to her strawberry red.

"Look who is talking, at least none of this pictures shows me as a blond."

"Yeah, still don't know how that happened."

"So how did you two do?"

"Prue's rich, has three companies and a limo. And you're not the only one with a divorce and my daughter is on her way..."

"Wait. Stop right there. You have a daughter?"

"Yeah, and, she's beautiful."

Piper shows them a photo.

"Of course she is. What's her name?"

"Oh God. I don't know. But she has powers. But for some reason I told her not to use them. Why would I do that?"

"Speaking of why... Why are we in our future bodies? I mean, I thought we were supposed to come here and see them."

"Well, apparently going to the past isn't the same as going to the future. I just wish that since we are in our future bodies that we could have some memory of what's happened in the last ten years, like how I got a daughter."

"Or how I got married for four times. Oh my god, I'm changing into grams."

"Okay, wait a second, if I'm in my future body and you are in your future body then that means that Phoebe..."

Piper looks to the TV, where the news is still on.

"TV... louder, louder."

The volume on the TV gets louder.

"_... execution is less than eight hours away until the burning of Phoebe Halliwell. The witch accused of murdering Cal Greene six months ago_."

"Eight hours? We were supposed to be here two weeks before."

"Shh..."

"_Let's go there now live where Sierra Stone is standing by. Sierra..._"

"_San Francisco district attorney, Nathaniel Pratt, who's discovery of the witch last August, has made an early favour for the governor's seat, just came out to make a statement. Let's listen in_."

"_This is a reflection of our citizens resolved to fair it out, the hidden evil. To turn fear into fight, and to band together as one. To cleanse our city of its greatest threat. Tonight, Phoebe Halliwell will burn for her crime. In which she does, let that be a warning to other witches out there. You're next."_

-c-

The sister enter the attic.

"Oh, surprise. Here we go, up the stairs, into the attic, grabbing the book of shadows, please tell me we're not gonna be doing this in ten years."

They stop before the bookstand, only there is no book.

"Apparently not."

"What?"

"The book is gone."

"It's got to be here, we need it to find the return spell."

Prue starts searching.

"Prue..."

"Guys, just help me look for it."

"Okay, relax, we'll find it."

Prue stops again before the bookstand.

"You don't know that. I mean, what if it's lost, what if we can't find it? Then we're stuck in our future bodies with no way of getting out of them and no way of saving Phoebe."

She flicks her arm in frustration and a wave comes out of her hand, blowing up half of the attic.

"Ooh! Been working out?"

"I guess that's a little sample of what ten years does to our powers."

"And to our attic."

"I wonder how my power evolved."

Piper sees something underneath a turned over table. "A key." She picks it up.

"It's the key to my wall safe at Bucklands."

"Do you think that means it's there? We've never taken the book out of the house before."

"Yeah, we haven't but maybe our future selves have. The question is why?"

"We don't even know what we're like in this time, Prue, let alone what we think. But if the book is at Bucklands, maybe it'll give us some answers."

"Alright, then we'll go there first, then to Phoebe to see if she's alright." They walk towards the door. "Sorry about the mess."

"Mmm hmm."

-c-

They go down the stairs when suddenly a man comes up the stairs. The sisters startle.

"Who are you?"

"Paige, are you trying to be funny. I know, I said I was going to leave, but I thought that we could maybe talk one more time."

"That's great." She looks at his nametag on his jacket. "Eric, but now isn't the right time."

"Wait, I'm telling you, I'm willing to give you another chance and you tell me that you don't have time."

"We just got to help Phoebe out now. Do you maybe know why we took the book of shadows out of the house?"

"The book of shadows, what's that?"

"You know, an old book full of spells and demons and you don't know what I'm talking about, are you?"

Eric laughed nervously.

"You aren't a witch, are you?"

"Wait, didn't you knew."

"So this is the secret you've been keeping for me? You know what, I'm really sorry I left you." He slowly backed away. "I really didn't mean to hurt, so please don't hurt me."

"Wait, are you scared of me?"

"I will not tell anyone, just let me go."

"Eric, stop." She holds out her hand while calling him, making a shield around him, capturing him. She looks at her hand. "Wow, how did I do that?" A few seconds after the shield appeared, it disappears again, Eric ran away again. "Wait."

"Paige, let him run."

"Hey, I already have three divorces, I'm not liking the idea of a fourth. And why did I never told him I'm a witch?"

"Paige, focus Phoebe, book, remember?"

"Right, let's go."

-c-

Phoebe's in a prison cell. She is wearing an orange overall and a strange necklace.

"Hello? Hello? Could somebody please answer me. I really need to talk to someone. Okay, how about a snack? Maybe some crackers, peanuts, something?" A guy slides a tray full of slop in the room. "A tray full of goo? Hey, wait a minute." She touches the glass and the necklace around her neck gives her an electric shock. She puts her hand around her necklace. "Don't I even get a phone call?"

Some guy from the other room, answers her.

"Shut up, witch!"

-c-

The girls are walking towards Buckland.

"I can't believe you get a limo and a driver and I've still got my same old car."

"You have a husband."

"Had a husband. I'm getting divorced remember. And how do you know you don't have a guy in this time? I mean, after all, I have a kid and an ex, you could have several."

"Ex's?"

"Yeah, I did."

"No, kids. I mean, we're in the future but with no memory of the past ten years. I don't even know who my ex-husband ..."

A guy holding a cup of coffee bumps into someone and Piper freezes him before it spills. They look around and notice everything is frozen.

"Okay, apparently your powers also grown. You just froze..."

"Everything. What a difference a decade makes."

Leo shows up.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Leo, I'm so glad you're here. I have so many..." She want to hug him but he backs away. "Uh... what's wrong?"

"You know, I knew you'd do something stupid like this. You used you magic in public. What's the matter with you? Are you insane?"

"Uh, Leo..."

"Remember he thinks we know what's going on."

"You wanna end up like your sister? Huh? We had an agreement. No using magic for Melinda's sake."

"Melinda?"

"Our daughter. What's wrong with you?"

"Our daughter?"

"Wait a second, you're Piper's ex?"

"I've got to say, I kinda expected that."

A woman walks around the corner and sees everything frozen except for Prue, Piper, Paige and Leo.

"Witch!"

"Okay, what's going on here?"

"Prue..."

Paige points to a couple of poster which reads: Rid the evil. Turn in witches.

"Over there! Witch!"

Everyone unfreezes.

"Alright, hurry, we gotta get outta here before they see you."

"They?"

"The witch hunters."

-c-

Phoebe is still in her cell, she gets up when she hears a door opening.

"Prue? Piper? Paige?"

"They haven't come to visit you before. Why would they come now? They're gonna be as happy to get rid of you than I am."

"Who are you?"

"I'm sorry. It's been so long since our last visit. Executions are a bitch to plan. Logistics, alerting the media, gathering the kindling."

"Uh, you know, I've had a lot of time to do some thinking about why I'm here."

"No amount of thinking will affect the outcome. Just as well been served for the crime."

"It wasn't really a big crime, was it?"

"You are truly evil. What bigger crime is there than taking a man's life?"

"I killed someone?"

"Phoebe, what is this? An attempt to stay your execution? Plead insanity? It won't work. You have five hours to live. Tik tok."

"What? Five hours? But that's not possible."

"Well, I'm happy to see the seriousness of this crime has finally hit you. See, you represent everything I resent. You're a threat. A danger to everything that is good and pure in our world."

"You're talking out of fear. Just because you don't understand something, doesn't make it evil."

"No, it's you who doesn't understand. You killed a man using your power and now you're gonna die because of it. I only wish I could burn all of your kind with you. But don't worry, in time I will. This is only the beginning."

-c-

Leo takes Piper, Paige and Prue underground. A lot of people are living there.

"Leo, listen to me. The three of us, the Prue, Paige and Piper that you see before you are from the past. From ten years ago."

"So, we have no idea what is going on."

"Don't even lie to me. Right, Phoebe is set to die today and I only hope that this madness dies with her. Right, these people are in danger because of the witch trials she started."

"How? How did she start them?"

"You know, I don't know what you hope to accomplish by pretending not to know..." Piper takes a step forward and kisses him passionately. "You haven't kissed me like that since..."

"Since this morning. 1999, remember? We were supposed to meet, you had to leave, I went up to the attic and this is where I came, the future. If you don't believe me, at least believe what you feel, trust that."

"I remember that was the day they sent me up to the attic to open the book of shadows, the future spell."

"Wait, that was you? We just assumed it was grams."

"No, it was me. They didn't tell me why. What, you don't know what's happened the last ten years?" Prue shakes her head. "These people, they're here underground because they've been accused of practicing witchcraft."

"They're witches?"

"Some of them. Most of them have been falsely accused. They're safe here for now."

"What did Phoebe do?"

"Six months ago she killed a man. Cal Greene."

"The baseball player?"

"This is crazy. I mean, Phoebe would never hurt anyone."

"She hurt him because he murdered someone. Someone Phoebe cared about very much. A dear friend who he brutalized. But a technicality set him free. Phoebe was furious, outraged. And that's when she crossed the line from protecting the innocent to punishing the guilty. She used her power to kill Greene, got caught, and her magic exposed by Nathaniel Pratt."

"And this is the result modern day witch trials with Pratt at the helm?"

"And Phoebe at the stake. I don't buy it. Her power can't kill."

"Well, it can now. It's been ten years. All your powers have grown."

"We have to get to Phoebe and explain."

"You can't. Alright, as it stands, you, Paige and Prue are safe. Pratt checked you out and he doesn't suspect you're witches. To get to Phoebe you'd have to use your powers and then they'll catch you then kill you."

"Leo, she's our sister. We're not gonna let her die."

"Wait, I'll go."

"Leo, this is our sister. We have to."

"No. I'm still your guide. I can orb in and keep you out of danger."

"Fine. Then we'll go back to Buckland and get the book and get the spell to get us home."

"We'll meet you at the manor."

Prue and Paige leave, but Piper can't resist to ask something.

"Leo, um, we got married?"

Leo smiles. Prue and Paige turn around.

"Piper, later. We'll have plenty of time later."

Piper leaves with a sigh.

-c-

Prue, Piper and Paige walk out of the elevator and people start crowing Prue immediately. Everyone starts talking at once. A red-haired woman gets to Prue and leads her away.

"Give the woman some air. She will meet with all of you after lunch. Thank you." They go into Prue's office. She closes the door behind her. "Okay, good news first. The requisition paper work was approved and..." Piper and Paige also enter her office. "Yes?"

"We're with her."

Prue's assistant looks at Prue confused.

"Piper and Paige. My sisters."

"Oh, right, sorry. Almost forgot you had two other sister, I mean other than..."

"That's okay, I forgot your name too."

"Anne. Miss Halliwell's personal assistant."

"Anne, right, my personal assistant. By the way Anne, um, do you know if my husband called by any chance?"

Anne laughs.

"Husband, good one. Very funny. Like you have the time. Okay, I just need to get your final okay on the acquisition. Your sister was amazing. I mean, at first the board was a little resistant, what with the lay off it would entail, but Prue pushed it through."

"I did?"

"I thought to hell with the little people part was particularly persuasive."

Piper and Paige smile while Prue pushes Anne out of her office.

"Okay, Anne, sweetie, I really need some private time with my sisters, so if you can just..."

"Oh, no problem, just buzz me."

Prue closes the door behind her.

"Look at me. Alright, I am booked with work, I'm about to lay off countless people with a flick of my pen, no man to speak of."

"Maybe you're just picky."

"I'm sure as hell aren't."

"But at least you two had a family. What's happened to me? Okay, well, I could dwell on the nightmare that my life has become, but we have work to do. At least some things around here haven't changed." She opens the wall safe and gets out the book of shadows.

"Okay, it should be after the demon with the tusk and before the spell to discourage a lover."

They look for it in the book but it's not there.

"Where is it? It was here in 1999."

"Yeah, and now it's gone. So, if the spell can only been used once, that must mean that our future selves have already used it. Which means..."

"We have no way of getting home."

Piper closes the book frustrated.

-c-

Leo orbs into Phoebe's prison.

"Leo, oh, thank God. Look, I know what they think I did and if you just..."

"Shh... they'll hear you."

"Where's the rest of the cavalry?"

"They're not coming."

"So, what, you'll grab me and we'll just orb and we'll meet them back at the..."

"Phoebe... I'm sorry."

"For what? Did something happen to my sisters?"

"Nobody's gonna rescue you."

Phoebe laughs.

"If that is some kind of whitelighter humour, let me be the first to tell you, you are not a very funny race of people."

"I wish you remembered what you'd done. It'd make this so much easier. Your future self used witchcraft for vengeance, Phoebe. Pratt is using that as a plan for him."

"Why does everyone think I killed someone? I wouldn't. I mean, I couldn't. What did I do? Premonition the man to death? My power is passive."

"Not in the future. It's grown. As have you. Which means unfortunately you have to suffer to consequences."

"I don't believe it."

"Then believe what you see."

He hands her a newspaper. As soon as Phoebe touches it, she has a premonition. _In it she creeps up behind Cal Greene. She holds held her hands either side of his head without touching and electricity-like power comes out of her hands. They levitate a few feet of the ground. As soon as he is dead, she drops him to the ground._

"Oh my God. What have I done?" Leo orbs out leaving her alone. "Help me!"

-c-

The sister are back in the living room of the manor, Prue and Paige are looking trough the book while Piper paces around them.

"You wanna tell me how screwed we are?"

"Pretty screwed."

"Thanks. I wonder what's taking Leo so long?"

"Some of the pages are marked. The top corners are turned down and all of them are new spells."

"Such as?"

"Like, here's a spell to create a door, one to induce slumber, a glamour to change ones appearance. Some of them have these baggies attached."

"They must be potions of some kind."

"But what about these? Okay, one to create money, to bend someone's will, to erase a memory, a binding spell."

"Binding? What are all these marked for?"

"This must of been our future selves plan to break Phoebe out. But something is bothering me. Clearly some of these spells are for personal gain."

"Which would break the most basic of wiccan rules. We wouldn't do that."

"We wouldn't. But maybe in ten years our future selves would."

Leo walks in.

"Perfect timing. We found the book but we can't... Where's Phoebe?"

"Where is she?"

"She's in prison where she belongs."

"Leo, you were supposed to bring her back here."

"No, I said I'd go to her. And I did. To explain to her why she has to pay for her crime."

"You're our guide, you're supposed to protect us and you're just gonna let her die."

"You're signing her death warrant."

"I'm to protect the greater good. If Phoebe lives, if you use your magic to save her, then the persecutions will continue. And our daughter will grow into a world where her powers punishable by death. Do you want that?"

"Of course not."

"Well, then it has to end with Phoebe. She has to die."

"Like hell."

Piper freezes Leo and sits down next to Prue and Paige.

"Relax. We've seen what your new powers can do when you're angry."

"He's gonna stay frozen right?"

"If he knows what's good for him, he'll stay frozen."

"Alright, let's get the spells."

-c-

Phoebe is in her cell, she sits on the ground while watching TV.

"Now, some people say this is a victory for me. But I say here's a victory for us all. For today the blight on everything that is good in our world, will be extinguished. Tonight, the witch will burn!"

-c-

Paige, Piper and Prue are in a car in front of a house.

"Piper, if you're gonna do this, you'd better hurry. Leo can unfreeze and be home any second. Besides, Phoebe has less than an hour."

Piper gets out of the car. She walks up to the house and looks through a window. Melinda is playing with her puppets. Piper is holding the bind spell. Leo orbs in behind her.

"You can't do it can you?"

"No. Our grandmother did it to us for protection."

"You don't have to bind her powers, Piper. We agreed that I'd take care of her and I will, I promise."

"I know you will. So we were together. Does that mean you clipped your wings for me?"

"No. You wouldn't let me. We tried to make it work with her powers, and it didn't, and all this happened."

"Were we happy? Just for a little while were we happy?"

"Very."

"Are you gonna try and stop us?"

"I can't do that."

"I hope you understand why I have to do what I'm doing."

"Yeah."

"What are we gonna do?"

"What we always do."

"Talk about it later." Piper gets back in the car. Prue looks upset. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"I have no one to say goodbye to. My life, they didn't even know who you were at the office, my own sisters. If we die tonight, my tombstone will read Here lies Prue, she worked hard."

"If you want, you can burrow one of my ex's."

"Guys, we're not gonna die. We're gonna find a way back to the present and we'll create a new future."

"What if we can't. What if we can never get home. According to Phoebe's premonition we fail."

"Our future selves fail. We still got a shot."

"You're right, you're right. Let's go get Phoebe."

-c-

The sister run outside the penitentiary. They stop next to a big wall.

"So far so good."

"Normal people usually break out of prison."

"Nothing about this is normal."

"To create a door, okay."

"No place like here."

"Okay."

Paige draws an imaginary door on the wall with her finger.

"Kinda small for us don't you think?"

"Just read the spell."

"_When you find your path is blocked, all you have to do is knock._ "

Piper knocks. The door opens and they walk inside.

-c-

Two guards put handcuffs on Phoebe

-c-

Prue, Piper and Paige walk trough the halls when a guard comes up to them.

"Freeze!"

"Good idea."

She freezes him.

"Alright, um, the cell should be up those stairs, come on. She'll be guarded, are you ready for this?"

"Do we have a choice?"

-c-

They come around the corner to find Phoebe's cell empty.

"We're too late."

"C'mon, maybe we can find still find."

They return their steps when suddenly a whole lot of guards come up to them.

"I found the witches."

"Oh no. Paige!"

Paige holds up her hand again and the bullets fall to the ground as soon as they hit her shield. They hide back around the corner.

-c-

Phoebe is tied to a pole and below her feet are holes where the fire will come out.

"I love the smell of burnt witch in the morning."

"At least I'm paying for my crime. There'll come a day where you have to pay for yours too."

"Remorseless to the end, huh." To the people watching. "Let today be a lesson to all those who would seek to defy human nature with their way of life. Let today serve notice that black magic will not be tolerated in our society and let today be remembered as the day we burned the witch."

-c-

Prue, Piper and Paige are still sitting around the corner.

"There is no way to escape from here. The only way out is blocked with a lot of guys with guns."

"What do we do?"

"Paige, calm down. We are in this together, we can do this and still save Phoebe."

The three of them hold hands.

"You're right, I just wished we were with Phoebe right now."

Suddenly they orb out into another room. They see Pratt pointing towards Phoebe.

"Piper, freeze them."

"Prue, Piper, Paige."

"We're getting you outta here."

Prue unties her.

"No, wait. You can't Prue, I'm serious."

"What are you talking about?"

"You guys have to leave. I deserve to be here. Or my future self does."

"You killed a killer. Don't be ridiculous."

"Look, this is Pratt's personal crusade. This isn't about us, this is about him. Where ever we go, he will follow us. He will hunt us. He will hunt our families. If anybody should be punished, it should be him."

Prue looks at her hand, she gets ready to use her power.

"Prue, what are you doing?"

"Saving the future good witches and our future."

"Prue, wait! Don't become a murderer too. It has to end with me."

"Phoebe, he was evil, he deserved what you..."

Phoebe starts to cry.

"Wrong things done for the right reasons still the wrong thing. Our job is to protect the innocent, not punish the guilty. And I crossed that line, I know that. And now you guys have to know that too."

They all start crying.

"We are not leaving here without you."

"Prue, we were sent here for a reason. Maybe not to stop this like we thought. But maybe to understand why this has to happen. Why you have to let this happen. I don't want to die. But I don't want you to die because of me." They hug. "I love you." Phoebe stands back next to the pole. Everyone unfreezes. They turn on the flames and Phoebe burns to death. Prue, Piper and Paige start crying.

-c-

Suddenly Prue, Piper and Paige are standing in the manor's living room. They look back normal.

"Prue..."

"What are we doing here?"

"Phoebe? You don't think she was... we saw..."

"I know. Oh, please God, don't let it be true. Phoebe!"

Phoebe walks in the room. They hug.

"We thought that we lost you."

"You did. I was burned. And I could, I could fell the flames on my skin. And then I was here. I don't know what happened."

"It's okay, you're safe now, you're home."

"You're home, but when?"

Piper turns on the TV. The report about Cal Greene comes on.

"Wait, that's the baseball player. That's what triggered my premonition. We're right back where we started. The day we cast a spell."

"Why?"

"Maybe because it worked. We were sent into the future to find out what Phoebe did. We came back to stop it from happening."

"But we didn't cast a spell to come back. We didn't even have one."

"Maybe they sent us back."

"But who? And why today? If we were sent back to keep the future from happening, shouldn't we be sent back to the day Phoebe killed Cal Greene instead?"

They hear a dog bark. They go to the window.

"Not again."

The guy's dog squats on their path.

"This guy still hasn't learnt his lesson."

"Apparently neither have we. I think this is why we were sent back here to this moment and time. This is where it all started. The first time we used our magic for revenge."

"But it's just a little thing, it's harmless."

"Yeah, but once you break the small rules, it's only a matter of time before the big ones are next."

"A very smart girl once told me that we were supposed to protect the innocent not punish the guilty."

"I haven't told you yet."

"Maybe you won't have to."

Prue sees the face of the guy.

"Pratt."

Pratt walks away.

"Do you think we should follow?"

"No. Our little act of revenge might of been what sent Pratt on his path to seek us all."

"Which might of let him to start the future witch trials."

"Hopefully now he won't."

"I still think we should keep an eye on him just in case."

"Absolutely."

-c-

Prue picks up the phone.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Not work. There is no way I am going to the office tonight. I'm going out with you guys. We all have a lot of changes to make if we want to avoid ending up where we just came from."

"I had a future that wasn't all bad. You were like Miss Fortune five hundred and I had a beautiful little girl."

"Yeah, and my future husband was yummy."

"I agree on that."

"What?"

"Details later."

"You know, we can still make the good things happen, Piper. We just have to make the right choices."

"So maybe Leo and I will end up together."

"Wait, you and Leo?"

The doorbell rings.

"Speak of the angel. I'll get that." She answers the door. "Hey, stranger." She grabs him and gives him a passionate kiss.

"I would have settled for a nice hello."

"Didn't anyone tell you not to settle?"

"That's a good lesson."

"I've been learning a lot of them lately."

"So I've heard. Look, honestly, I didn't know you were gonna get sent to the future. I don't even know what happened when you got there. All I was told was apparently you had something to learn."

"So, that's why you're here."

"No. That's why you're here. You were given a glimpse of your future to learn a valuable lesson. And I'm glad you learned it too because I know they wouldn't of brought you back if you didn't. Speaking of which, they're making me work tonight, so I can't really..."

"This is always gonna be a problem for us isn't it?"

"I'm willing to work on it."

"Good. Because I'll never forget you said that."

They kiss passionately once again.


	3. The painted world

**The painted world**

Prue is in her office, talking into a tape recorder about a painting while a woman is waiting at her desk.

"Painting of a gothic castle, artist unknown, circa 1920s, oil on canvas, 20x28." Prue stops recording and turns to her client. "Ms. Franklin, where did you say you got this?"

"Oh, I... I inherited it. A few months ago but it's been in my family for generations."

"The composition is so unusual. The artists used pure colours, straight from the tube and then varnished each layer over and..."

"Uh, I'm sorry for interrupting. But do I really need to be here."

"No, of course not." Prue moves over to her desk and sits down. "It's just that most people prefer to be at an appraisal, especially when they on selling the piece."

"It's just, I'm kind of in a hurry."

Prue gives the woman a paper.

"Say no more. Just sign at the bottom and you're free to go."

"Thank you." She signs the paper without reading it first. "So, how long do you think it will take to sell it?"

"Well, I'll need to see ownership records before I can do anything."

"I'll send you everything I have. So, is that all, then?"

"Uh, no, since you definitely want to sell the piece, I'll need to confirm its authenticity, its physical condition, so if you'll just sign at the bottom, that will let us go ahead and X-ray the piece."

Prue gives another paper. The woman looks relieved that the painting will be sold and signs that paper too without reading.

"Done. Anything else?"

"Uh, well, yes, Ms. Franklin, I would really like the time to research this. That way I can get you the best price."

"Look, I... I appreciate your professionalism... I really do, but I'm not interested in getting the best price... I just want you to sell that painting, as soon as you can, right?" The woman stands up and sticks out her hand. "Good night, Ms. Halliwell."

Prue takes her hand.

"Good night."

-c-

Piper is in her club, looking at some papers while being on the phone with Phoebe, who is walking down a lobby.

"Piper it was an accident. It's not like I borrowed Prue's car, so I could drive it into a pole."

"How bad is the damage?"

"Not bad but maybe expensive. Which is why I need a favour."

"If you're calling to borrow money, I don't have any."

"No, it's not about money. It's just I don't want you to tell Prue. She's been so supportive and I don't want to lose her trust again."

"You mean, you haven't told her?"

"Well, not yet. But I have a plan."

"Phoebe, you have to tell her. It's her car and you don't have money to fix it."

"But I will have the money to fix it. I'm at this company called Web San Francisco, it's an interactive network on the internet, and I faxed them my résumé this morning, and they want to meet with me, tonight."

"I've got to go, but Phoebe, I don't want to be in the middle of this, just tell her, okay?"

"If I don't get the job, I will tell her."

Phoebe hangs up the phone and enters a room. In the room are sitting a lot of smart-looking people in costume. She nervously goes to the secretary.

"Hello, I'm Phoebe Halliwell. I have an appointment." The woman behind the counter gives her a paper without giving Phoebe much attention. "Thanks. All these people... they're here for the interview, too, aren't they?"

"Well, you won't have any trouble with this if you figured that out. It's an aptitude test. You can finish it at home."

"Great. Great."

Phoebe sits down and hears the two people next to her talking.

"So, you won a fellowship from the National Science Foundation."

"When I was at Harvard, yeah. How'd you know?"

"Saw it on your résumé. I was cum laude also, except I was a Ford Foundation Scholar."

"So, then, you must have gone to... Stanford?"

The secretary interrupts the people.

"Stanford? I went to Stanford."

Phoebe looks insecure when the guy behind her starts talking to her.

"Intimidating, isn't it?"

"The good will hunting or this aptitude test?"

"Who cares about linear algebra or differential. And that test is a snap. I mean, in this day and age, who can't write in the HTML numeric languages, right?"

"Right." Phoebe laughs nervously and takes the paper with her, leaving her pencil with the guy next to her. "Yeah. That's for you." She leaves, holding the paper in her hand."

-c-

Prue is working in her office when suddenly her attention is caught by a light in the painting. "What?" She gets a magnifying glass and looks closer at the painting. She sees a quick flash of a man followed by a light, before the window goes back to dark. Prue just can't believe what she just saw.

-c-

Prue, Paige and Piper are in the kitchen. Prue is getting her luck ready, Piper is still looking at some papers and Paige is eating her breakfast. In the meantime, Prue is telling the others about the painting.

"At first I just thought that it was a reflection off of something in the room but then when I moved closer, I saw a man... inside the painting... in the castle. Right, but the moment I saw him, he backed away from the window, and then there was this... strange glow that went past the window.. it was so weird. I don't know what to think of it."

She looks at Paige.

"Well, are you sure you are just not overworked? You do work a lot you know? Remember your future, all work, no play."

"Right, I think yours was quite the opposite of that right? All those guys, I've got to say, if you kept that up, you would have easily passed grams in the men department."

"Don't remind me." Paige looks over to Piper. "So Piper what do you think of this?"

Piper doesn't answer, so Prue gives her a yell.

"Piper!"

She finally looks up.

"What?"

"We were talking?"

"I know. About a man in a painting. Listen to this one: hallway near club entrance too narrow?"

Prue looks confused.

"I thought that we had discussed your code violations."

"Well, I keep finding more. The plumbing, the electrical, the heating, it... none of it is up code."

Paige gets up and puts Piper's arms down.

"Stop. You're obsessing."

"Well, it runs in the family."

Piper looks to Prue.

"I don't obsess. I think... intensely... anyway, I can't really help it. I mean, we've seen so many bizarre things, why not a man in a painting."

"Well, at least he's safe from building inspector. I can't imagine that castle's up to code."

Phoebe gets into the kitchen, holding the book.

"I'm sorry but I couldn't find anything in the book of shadows about people who may be trapped inside painting. I looked everywhere."

She sits down next to Paige who started eating again.

"How did the interview go?"

Piper looks up interested.

"Yeah, you were asleep by the time I got home. So how did your interview do?"

"It went fine. Uh, actually, it's still going. I have to finish this take-home aptitude test which I actually think I will start right now. So I will see you guys later."

Piper gives her the look. Paige looks confused to the two of them while Phoebe tries to sneak out ignoring Piper. But unfortunately, Prue remembers something.

"Uh, Phoebe?"

Phoebe turns back around trying to look innocent.

"What?"

"Aren't you forgetting something? My car keys?"

"They'd be with your car... which is at the body shop having an estimate."

"An estimate?"

Piper pretends to be reading her code violations while Paige suddenly stops eating.

"Wait, did you trash Prue's car?"

Prue looks dangerously towards Phoebe.

"No, no, I just… sort of... bumped... no, actually I backed your car into a pole last night."

Prue smiles.

"A pole? You hit a pole?"

Phoebe sits back down, defeated.

"Yeah, you don't even have to say it. I know what you're thinking. How could I be so irresponsible? How could I be so stupid?"

"Okay, irresponsible, yes. Stupid, no way. Where's that coming from?"

"It's coming from the fact that I'm Phoebe, the one who always makes mistakes..." Prue looks at Paige, not understanding what Phoebe is talking about. And to tell from Paige's face, she also doesn't know of anything. "The one who always causes problems. I mean, if anybody were gonna back your car into a pole and not tell you right away, it'd be me, right?" Prue looks at her, tenderly.

Piper stands up, still occupied with her papers.

"I think I'll just be going now."

"See? Even Piper, the one that always stays neutral when it comes to family checks out on this one."

"Yes, you're right. You're on your own."

Phoebe looks at Paige.

"Well, leave me out of it, too. I don't want to argue with you. I just know I lose it, cause if there is one thing you are definitely good at, it's arguing. But don't worry, that also runs in the family."

Paige looks at Prue who returns the glare.

"Well but if I remember correctly, you are also not someone who walks away quickly from an argue."

"Normally no, but now, I have to get ready for college." She gives Phoebe a kiss on the cheek. "Just make sure to win this argue, cause I still want three sisters when I come back home." She winks at Prue and walks out of the kitchen.

Phoebe looks back at Prue.

"Prue, I have a plan off paying this and…"

"Later Phoebe, now I just want to find a cab. And I don't think you're stupid."

She walks out while Phoebe follows her.

"Well, whatever it costs, I will pay for the damages... and whatever the cab costs, I will pay for that too."

Phoebe goes up the stairs, Piper and Prue stay behind in the foyer.

"Uh, what just happened here?"

"I don't know anything about anything."

"Piper! Just forget about the car. What about the man in the painting?"

"Well, unless he's real and screaming for help, forget about him. We shouldn't go looking for trouble. We have enough around here. I'm going next door."

-c-

Piper walks up to the neighbours and while going up the stairs, she picks up their paper. Before knocking, she tries to straighten her hair, but Dan opens the door before she has the chance to.

"Dan!"

"Good morning!"

"I'm sorry to bother you."

"No, you're not bothering me. Unless you refuse to hand over my paper."

She smiles as she hands it to him.

"Oh, uh, all yours."

"Thanks. Uh, you wanna... come in?"

"No, no really, I just stopped by to ask a quick favour. My club received a visit from a D.B.I. last night."

"And you've got code violations."

"I have the war and peace of code violations."

Piper hands him the pack of papers.

"And you were thinking, what? Neighbour Dan, he's in construction, maybe he could help, huh?"

"Of course I'll pay you... something."

Jenny runs past them.

"Uncle D, I'm late. Hey, Piper."

"Hi Jenny."

"See you later, uncle Dan. And don't forget your promise."

Jenny leaves. Dan continues like Jenny didn't interrupt them.

"Ok, then, um, I'll tell you what I can do. I'll check out the code violations. See how serious they really are. If you'll help me with the promise I made Jenny."

"Deal. Wait... Uh, what's the promise?"

"She needs help with a paper. It's for her bio class, you know, something about within the human reproductive system..."

"Oh, ha... you mean, sex..."

"It's just way to awkward for me to talk to my niece about."

"Yeah, ha... sure, not to worry. I have plenty of experience."

Dan laughs.

"Really... with sex?"

"No... I mean, uh... talking about it." Dan continues laughing while Piper smiles nervously. "Yeah!"

-c-

Ms. Franklin is again in Prue's office.

"So, uh, was there a problem with any of the ownership records that I sent over?"

"No, uh... everything's in order."

"Then I'm not sure why you wanted meet with me."

"Look. Ms. Franklin, I know that you don't really want to be here, so I'll be perfectly honest. There's something... strange about that painting"

"Have you seen him?"

"Him?"

"That's how it all starts, you know?"

"What do you mean?"

"At first, you see him. The man inside the painting. At least, you think you see him. But he just... he disappears so fast. And you start to think about it. But it doesn't make any sense. I mean, how could a man be inside a painting? Then you see him again. This time longer. And now you're sure."

"So, you think that the painting is haunted by a ghost?"

"Oh, no, no. I think he's definitely alive. I think he's trapped inside."

"Do you know who he is?"

"No, I have no idea. Nobody does. Look, all I know is if I don't get rid of that painting, I'm gonna end up just like everybody else in my family who's ever owned it,. I'm gonna be completely insane."

"Ms. Franklin."

"No, you've only seen the beginning, Ms. Halliwell. Just trust me when I tell you. It's only gonna get worse."

She stands up and leaves.

-c-

Phoebe is her bedroom, trying to write a spell.

"Spirits... send... the.. words... from all..."

But she is interrupted by a knock on the door. It's Piper.

"It's me. Can I come in?"

"Uh, Piper, I really just wanna be alone right now."

"I won't stay long, I promise."

"All right, just give me a sec." She hides the book of shadows and her notes. "Ok, you can come in now?"

Piper opens the door and sits down on the bed.

"I just wanted to tell you, uh... the body shop called."

"Yeah, I know, I heard the message. 1200 bucks."

"Did you tell Prue?"

"I didn't have to. She already knew. She called the body shop herself. That's why I have got to get this job, Piper. It's the only way I can pay for the damages. It's the only way that I can make things right."

"All the more reason you should've told her."

Phoebe reacts much more upset then usual.

"Okay, well. Maybe a smarter person would have figured that out. Than again a smart person wouldn't have backed a car into a pole. A smart person would have realized that it was a $1200 pole. That's because smart people don't do stupid things, only stupid people do."

"Phoebe, I didn't mean to upset you."

"I know. Maybe we should just talk later."

"Ok." Piper stands up to leave but changes her mind and turns back around. "You're sure you're gonna be ok?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Phoebe, I know you think getting this job is the answer, but please just don't do anything..."

Phoebe looks up.

"What? Stupid?"

"No... just don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Don't worry. I won't." Piper leaves the room. "You would never cast a smart spell."

Having a sudden inspiration, she rides down some words on a paper. She folds the paper in two and then again in two. She holds the paper to her head and casts the spell. "_Spirits, send the words from all across the land. Allow me to absorb them through the touch of either hand. For 24 hours, from 7 to 7, I will understand all meaning of the words, from here to heaven... Oh, and P.S. there will be no personal gain_." As for a test, Phoebe puts a dictionary on the bed and puts her hands above the pages. The pages turn quickly under her hands and when it's finished, Phoebe starts talking again. "Abaca: Stronger fibre obtained from a banana leaf. Zygote: A cell formed by the union of two gametes... Cool!"

-c-

Prue is in her office when a guy walks holding a map and the painting.

"Hey, Joe. That was fast."

"No line at the X-Ray machine."

He puts the painting back on the stand.

Prue: So, did the X-Ray confirm its authenticity?

"It did a lot more than that. Check out the X-Ray. It's got definitive underwriting on the canvas."

He gives her the map which holds the X-Ray photo.

"It has a pentimento?"

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. But you can see it on the X-Ray. The text is in Latin. I've never seen anything like it before."

Prue lays the photo on a lamp so she can read it.

"Absolvo Amitto Amplus Brevis, to free what is lost say these words."

"Wow... You speak Latin?"

"Yes. Good night, Joe."

"Okay, well, uh, why don't I just return the painting to the vault... say tomorrow?"

"Good idea."

"Okay."

Joe leaves. Prue moves closer to the painting and sees the word help written on a window.

"Help... okay... simper mea, Mine forever." Prue rereads the whole pentimento, unknowingly chanting. "Absolvo Amitto Amplus Brevis Semper Mea." She gets sucked into the painting. "Oh, no. Oh!"

-c-

Prue falls on the floor of a castle. She gets up and immediately gets the idea of being watched.

"Who's there?"

A big fireball flies across the room. Prue ducks just in time. A guy comes out the shadows.

"Quick! Follow me!"

"What?"

"This way. Ladies first." He takes Prue to the side, where it's more safe. "I see you read Latin too."

"What has happened? Where am I?"

"Virden Castle."

"Where is that?"

"Inside the painting."

"I'm trapped inside the painting?"

"Yes and if we don't get to that bookcase, we're death."

"Who are you?"

"My name's Malcolm and you were supposed to help me, not join me. Who are you, anyway?"

"Oh, my name's Prue and I was helping you. You were supposed to come out."

"Great. Now we're both trapped. Hurry."

They run to the bookcase. A fireball heads for them but Prue moves it with her powers.

"What the hell? What are you? How'd you do that?"

"Oh, never mind. We're gonna get killed. Will you hurry up?"

He takes out a specific book, opening a secret passage. They enter another room, one without fire breathing statues.

-c-

It's morning. Piper enters the kitchen where Phoebe is already sitting at the table, filling in a crossword puzzle.

"Hi Phoebe. You're up early. What's up?"

"Oh, the Dow Jones, housing prices and space shuttle discovery."

"Huh?"

Phoebe points to the paper.

"Read the paper."

"Oh. Uh, have you seen Prue this morning?"

"Not yet. Oh, uh, Dan just called. Said he'd meet you at the club at noon."

"Okay, uh, did you hear her come in last night?"

"Nope."

Piper looks around in the kitchen.

"This is really... strange. Cat hasn't been fed, no coffee's been made and Prue definitely didn't pack a lunch."

"Maybe she's still asleep."

"No, I checked her room. Her bed hasn't been slept in."

Piper takes the phone and dials a number.

"Maybe she didn't come home from the office last night."

"No, it's her voice mail." She puts the phone back down. "What if Prue's right about the painting? What if something's happened?"

"First off, 63% of all adults believed to be missing show up within 24 hours. An auto accident is unlikely, 1.2% even less likely for work related accident. Factor in her good health, a life expectancy of 78.5 years, add her defensive powers of telekinesis, and we are looking at the odds of... less than 4.1%... No, actually make less than 3.3%. I forgot that the book of shadows had zip on evil artwork."

Piper looks mouth-open at Phoebe.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing"

"No, you're like ask . You haven't been in the book of shadows, have you?"

"No, why would I do that?"

"All right, I don't have time for this. Uh, I'm gonna go to Bucklands."

"What about Dan? You're supposed to meet him at the club."

"Damn it."

Phoebe smiles at Piper's reaction.

"Do you like him? Is that the vibe that I'm getting right now?"

"No. Don't be ridiculous."

"Mmm."

"Just do me a favour and go in my place. And then you can give me all the details later."

Phoebe smiles evilly.

"Like what he was wearing?"

Paige comes in, right when Piper wants to leave.

"Great, you with me. Explanation in the car."

"Okay."

Paige looks confused at Phoebe, who is just grinning.

-c-

Malcolm is holding his hand against his hand, while holding a candleholder towards Prue, who is sitting down.

"You can't just stand there another 12 hours and not let me help you. You're hurt."

"Stay where you are. I hate witches."

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm a good witch? Although, if you make me say that again, I just may hurt you. Look, I was trying to save you."

"Well, you did a great job."

"The last thing that I expected was to get stuck here."

"So I guess your powers can't get us out then, huh?"

"No. I can't just lift us from another world. So, if we're gonna get out we're gonna have to work together. Just let me help you. I won't turn you into a toad. I promise." She stands up when he lowers the candleholder. "Thank you. May I?" She looks at his wound. "Doesn't look too bad. At least the bleeding is..." She touches it making him wince. "So, why do you hate witches so much."

"It's how I got trapped in here. The artist that painted this was a witch. She was my girlfriend."

"You dated a witch?"

"What, you've never dated a mortal?"

"Huh, I wonder..."

She touches the wound again.

"Ow!"

"Ah, sorry. Go on!"

"Fine. Nell and I... we broke up. She wrote a curse in Latin."

"To free what is lost."

"Right. And she painted the castle over it, made sure I got the painting. It was the only way she could trick me and trap me inside. It worked."

"So how did you see the underwriting?"

"Same way as you, probably?"

"X-Ray... you must have really of pissed Nell off."

"Well, that would explain why I haven't aged since I got here and the fireballs."

"How long have you been running from them?"

"What year is it?"

"1999."

"It's been 70 years."

"Oh, wait a second. You've been stuck here trying to get help for 70 years."

"It's not the typical life of an art historian, isn't it?"

"Well, I won't be here that long. I mean, I have 3 sisters and we all have powers. If anybody can find a way out, it's us."

-c-

Phoebe and Dan walk down the stairs of P3.

"Dan, sorry to keep you waiting."

"I didn't realize you were late."

Phoebe looks at her watch. "Oh, 11 minutes, 23.4 seconds to be exact. Those the code violations?" She points to the papers in his hands.

"That and the D.B.I.s book of minimum safety requirements."

"Ok, then we're all set. I think you'll find me pretty knowledgeable about all areas of construction."

"What about Piper?"

"Oh, something came up. She can't be here. Sorry buddy."

She gives him a pat on the shoulders while passing him.

-c-

Piper walks into Prue's office, she finds Prue's purse and jacket. "Prue?" She walks around and sees the X-ray. "Absolvo Amitto Amplus Brevis." Joe enters, interrupting her.

"Oh, hey Piper. Joe Lyons. We met at a wine auction a few months ago."

"Oh..."

"Uh, Prue around?"

"Uh, she's... she's somewhere."

"Ah, I won't get in your way. I just need to pick up the painting."

"Oh, forgive me, Joe."

"For what?"

She freezes him.

"For that." She looks back at the X-Ray. "What does this mean again? Absolvo Amitto Amplus Brevis Semper Mea." She suddenly gets sucked into the painting too.

"Piper, the secretary hasn't seen her leave." Paige enters the office, seeing Joe frozen and no Piper. "Piper?" She looks at the painting.

-c-

Back in the painting, Prue explained a plan to Malcolm.

"That's your plan? Are you outta your mind?"

"My sisters are gonna realize I'm missing, soon. I have to let them know where I am and warn them."

"It's too dangerous. You'll die."

"I don't have any another choice. Alright, my sisters could make the same mistake I did and get suck into the painting. Ok, corner, now."

They run to the next corner, avoiding the fireballs.

"And how will seeing your name..."

"And the name Nell."

"Yes, written on a window, prevent that from happening?"

"Ok, because my sisters will think that it's a clue, so they'll look up the name Nell in our book of shadows and hopefully they'll find a solution. Are you ready? Go!" They run once again to another corner. "Ok, tell me how you write help on the window without getting creamed by the fireball."

"You mean you don't know how you're gonna do it?"

"You're the expert."

"Are you crazy? It took me years to get those messages written on the window. I've got the scars to prove it. What about your powers?"

"All right, fine. I'll deflect the fireballs. You write the names."

Prue comes closer to the windows.

"Be careful near the window."

"Why? What's wrong with the window?" But Malcolm doesn't get the chance to explain as Piper falls also on the floor. "Piper?"

"Ouch, yeah it's me." Prue helps Piper up. "Where are we? And who is he?" She looks at the guy when suddenly the castle starts to shake. "Oh, okay... what's happening?"

"The painting. It's being moved. And it's moving fast."

"Okay, wait, painting? Prue, what does he mean with painting."

"Exactly that, we are in the painting."

"No time for chit chat ladies, we need to get back to the chamber."

"No way. I'm going to that window."

"It's too dangerous. We gotta to get out of here."

Malcolm pulls Prue and Piper under a table.

"I really just wanted to get my name and Nell's on that window."

"And you can, as soon as the painting stops moving. Just stay low."

Malcolm stares at Prue. Piper notices it and gives Prue a shake.

"What?"

She motions to Malcolm. Prue looks over to him, asking what with her eyes.

"Nothing. I was... never mind."

"No, what?"

"I always hoped someone would get my SOS. I just never thought it would be a woman."

"What, a woman can't rescue a man?"

"I'm still waiting."

"Yeah, well, keep waiting, pal. Bookcase!"

They run into the bookcase.

-c-

Phoebe is watching TV while being on the phone.

"Hello, this is Phoebe Halliwell. I'd like to set up an appointment to return my aptitude test." Paige comes in, she puts the painting on a table. "By 5 tomorrow? Great. Bye. So was Prue at Bucklands?"

"No, but it was clearly the last place she was before she disappeared. I take it you haven't heard from her?"

"Not a word."

"And even weirder, Piper disappeared too."

"Okay, now I'm worried."

"And check out this X-Ray I found at her office. I think it may have something to do with their disappearing. We don't have a lot of time, either. It won't be long before everyone at Bucklands realizes that Prue's gone with the painting."

Phoebe still watches the TV.

"Oh, the final match."

Paige looks at what Phoebe is watching and sees a quiz. The host asks the last questions.

"Primarily concerned with blood and blood-forming organs."

Phoebe answers before the guest has a chance to answer the same.

"Hematology."

"Yes. Oona Chaplin, the wife of Charles Chaplin, was the daughter of what famous?"

Phoebe answers before the question is finished.

"Eugene O'Neil."

"American playwright."

The guest answers.

"O'Neil."

"What country now occupies the Peninsula once known as Asia Minor?"

Phoebe is once again first.

"Turkey."

"Uh... Turkey."

Paige turns the TV off.

"How is that you know all the answers?"

"What? I could know about medicine, Americans playwrights and that Asia Minor is now called Turkey."

"No, you couldn't... you have cast a spell, haven't you?"

"I wanted to be able to get Prue's car fixed and this job was the only way that I could do it."

"Phoebe, what kind of spell?"

"All I had to do was ace an aptitude test which, by the way, I'm sure I have."

"Phoebe?"

"Okay. It's a smart spell. And before you freak out, it's out temporary. It'll be over by 7 o'clock tonight."

"Haven't you learnt anything from the future. Personal gain will ends up with the stake."

"Yeah. I remember that. But it's not. I even put that in myself, no personal gain."

"There will be consequences. There always are."

"I don't care. It's worth it. Paige you were not at that job interview surrounded by those college graduates. You don't know how good it feels to be really smart. Smart people are respected, taken seriously. And really smart women?" She sees the look on Paige's face. "Forget about it! Then again, you probably do know what I'm talking about. You're almost one of them."

"So, what? Phoebe, I will never have the kind of smarts you have no matter what I do. But you... you can go back to collage. Say you did get this job. What would happen to it the moment your smart spell ended?"

"I thought I'd worry about that later."

Phoebe moves to the stair, while Paige looks at the X-Ray again.

"Wait. What does this mean? Absolvo Amitto Amplus Brevis Semper Mea." Paige starts to get sucked into the painting. "Phoebe. Help!"

Phoebe turns around to see Paige being sucked into the painting."

"Paige, no!"

"Phoebe!"

"Paige?"

-c-

Paige lands on the floor of the castle. Prue, Piper and Malcom enter at the screaming. They walk into the room, seeing Paige holding up her shield while trying to shield herself against all the fireballs.

"Paige?"

Prue pulls her to the side.

"What the hell is happening? Where are we?"

"All right, hurry. Just get to the bookcase fast."

"Watch out."

Piper sees a fireball coming towards her sisters and freezes it. They run into the bookcase. Malcolm looks to Paige.

"Don't tell me she's the sister witch who was gonna save us."

-c-

Prue has explained everything to Paige when Piper starts pacing.

"I don't want to live forever. I don't want to spend the rest of my time trapped in a painting, hanging on some wall, wearing a broken shoe."

"A broken shoe?"

Piper shows Paige her shoe which has no heel anymore.

"It broke when I ran towards the bookcase. Now back to living forever. I don't want to do that."

"Well, neither do I but there is a solution."

"You call that a solution? Braving endless fireballs to get a message to Phoebe?"

"Okay, so, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the situation is pretty bad."

Paige turns around.

"No. But it may just take a rocket scientist to get us out of here. Phoebe."

"Another witch sister?"

"Not any witch. A super witch. She's a genius."

"Paige, I don't really think that you're helping the situation."

"No, I mean it. She's a walking brain trust. An Einstein with cleavage. She cast a spell on herself, Prue. A smart spell."

"I know there was something off with her this morning. That explains it."

"What?"

Malcolm interferes again.

"Can she save us?"

"Forget the details, Prue. Just know that if anybody can get us out of here, it's Phoebe. We need to get back to that living room, get Nell's name on the window…"

"Paige, wait."

"No no no no no. We can't wait. It's only temporary. The spell ends at 7 tonight."

"Ooh!"

Prue and Piper quickly jump to follow.

-c-

6:15pm. Phoebe carries the book of shadows downstairs. She sits down on the couch.

"Come on. Come on. There's got to be something." She holds her hands above the book when the doorbell rings. "Who is it?"

"It's Jenny."

"Uh... unless it's a huge 911, sweetie, you're gonna have to come back later."

Doorbell rings again and Phoebe hides the book so she can let Jenny in.

-c-

Piper, Paige and Prue are going towards the window.

"If we get out of here alive, you own me a new pair of shoes."

"If we get out of here alive, I'll buy you a purse to match. Piper, left."

Piper freezes a fireball.

"Forget the shoes. The next time you get a supernatural SOS…"

"I'll take your advice and just ignore it."

Malcolm is still standing in the bookcase.

"Be careful near the window."

"What's wrong with the window?"

Piper gets closer to the window and is nearly sliced to pieces when blades appear on either side of Piper.

"Wha! Whaaa! Blades!"

"Are you okay?"

"Uh, for now. But I can't reach the window because if I lean forward, I'm sliced and diced."

Prue uses her power to open the blades so Piper can reach the window.

"Okay, Piper. Hurry!"

Piper starts writing an N on the window. Paige notices she is doing it wrong.

"Don't forget to write her name backwards so Phoebe can read from outside."

Piper starts over when she realises she is doing it wrong. In the meantime, Prue is getting it harder and harder. "Come on." Piper finishes and gets out of the way, so Prue can release the blades. She moves the frozen fireball in front of the window, so it flashes up.

"Good thing she had a short name." They run into the bookcase. "Let's go, let's go, let's go."

-c-

Phoebe is at the manor, sitting on the couch talking to Jenny.

"The human reproductive system? Wait, and your uncle wanted Piper to help you out with this?"

"Yeah, but I was too embarrassed to tell him I already know about sex. So I figure we can just hang out and watch some television." Jenny leans back until she sees the light on the painting. "Hey, what's that?"

"Uh, Jenny, will you go in there and grab me a pen, please?" jenny goes to the kitchen while Phoebe gets a magnifying glass and looks at the painting. "Nell?"

Jenny comes back in.

"Is something wrong?"

"Uh, I'm not sure." Phoebe sits back down and starts writing. "Okay. The 23 chromosomes that make up the human genome system within the cell..." She looks towards Jenny and realises it's to difficult. "It's too complicated." She turns the page around and starts drawing something. "Okeydokey. You're all set."

"But..."

She hands the paper to Jenny and pushes her out of the house.

"Bye Jenny."

-c-

Phoebe holds her hands above the book and the pages turn by themselves. "Nell, Nell, find me Nell." The pages turns until a certain page. "Whoa! I am one super smart witch. Okay, what do we have here? Latin. In the 1920s a witch named Nell tricked a powerful warlock into a painting with a hidden spell that only his power of X-Ray vision could see. Okay, I'm getting tired of talking to myself. How do I get my sisters out? Oh! VERVA OMNES LIBERANT. Words free us all. These words will free anyone trapped inside the painting. Okay. But how do I get the words inside without getting trapped inside the painting myself?" Right then Kit meows, attracting Phoebe's attention. "No, I couldn't."

-c-

The others are sitting in the spare room.

"So, maybe we should take shifts waiting for Phoebe outside the bookcase. I mean, we've been pretty safe there so far."

"I'll take the first shift."

"I had a feeling you would."

Malcolm leaves the bookcase

"What? What is it? What's wrong?"

"I've been thinking about that witch who cursed Malcolm into the painting. It takes a lot of time and a high level of magic to create this world. Seems like an awfully big spell just to get revenge over a bad breakup."

"I agree."

"Although sometimes…" Prue and Piper look at Paige. "No never, it's strange to revenge your boyfriend like this."

"And it was almost impossible for us, the charmed ones no less, to get that message on the window. Yet Malcolm, an art historian with absolutely no powers, who was able to escape fireballs and those blades, to get his message on the window. I mean, I don't know. It's just... something weird about all of this."

They hear a noise and a cat. In the living room, Malcolm is closing up on Kit. "Here kitty kitty." Kit hisses at him. "Here kitty kitty. What do we have here?" He takes off Kit's collar and looks at the message.

The sisters enter.

"It is Kit."

"What is she doing here?"

"Prue, look."

Malcolm is reading a paper.

"Piper, freeze him."

She tries to freeze him but he blinks before she can.

"You're too late. But you were right. Your sister Phoebe's one smart witch. Blinking allows me to be one place, one moment, and another the next"

"Paige, look out."

Paige shields herself from a fireball. Malcolm finishes his sentence and disappears.

"I thought he was an innocent. I thought he needed help."

"I'm not talking to you... forever"

-c-

Malcolm appears in living room. He looks at Phoebe.

"Thanks for freeing me, witch. 70 years is a long time"

"70 years? You're a warlock, aren't you?"

"Your sisters were right. You are a smart witch."

He starts walking towards Phoebe, making her step back.

"Where are they?"

"With the cat. The one with no collar." He shows her she collar. "That was interesting... that was smart. Too smart for your own good."

"So, that woman who brought Prue the painting... she's a warlock too?"

"Jane's my lover. She's been trying to get me out for years. She needed to find the charmed ones, you. It took her 70 years to do that."

"We haven't been around that long."

She kicks him in the chest.

"I read "jeet-kune-do" manual earlier today. I think that makes me a black belt." He blinks and appears behind her... she kicks him again "Actually, make that a seventh degree black belt. I'm a master."

"Not for long. You're not. We'll see how powerful you are, how smart you are when your spell ends at 7."

"How do you know about that?"

"Tick Tock, Phoebe. Tick Tock."

He blinks and appears outside the house. There he meets Jane.

"Malcolm."

"Jane."

They kiss.

"I thought I'd never seen you again. Come on. Let's get out of here."

"Not yet. Not yet. I have a little present for you."

"Oh, you do? Where is it?"

"It's inside the house... Something you've always wanted."

"And what would that be?"

"The power of premonition."

"And what would you get?"

"Revenge... and 2 more powers."

-c-

The sisters are sitting down.

"Even if Phoebe is alive, she may not be for long."

"Maybe she can figure out a way to save herself before he finds her."

"Yeah, well, she better do it quick, it's almost 7. Although if anybody can do it, Phoebe can."

"Yeah, even without the smart spell. I mean, putting that message on Kit's collar, that's very Phoebe. I would've never thought of it."

"Neither would I. It was a great plan."

"That's just typical Phoebe."

"If we get out of here, I'm gonna buy here a new pair of shoes."

"I'll buy her a purse to match."

They look at Paige.

"What? I'm a student, money is really valuable to me."

-c-

Phoebe is looking at the book, looking trough the book. "The spell... 3 words in Latin... the question is... which 3?" The clock announces it's 7 o'clock. "Oh, no." She holds her hands above the book but the pages won't flip. "Come on come on... they're on the tip of my tongue. Uh... Verve omnes something... Verve omnes... liber... liber... liberace! No, it can't be liberace..." She finds the page. "Oh, oh no. It's in Latin... the spell is over and I don't understand Latin anymore."

Malcolm blinks inside the house.

"I told you I'd be back."

He opens the door for Jane.

"Hello, Phoebe." She walks towards Phoebe while blowing on her finger, making a flame appear on the top of it "Say goodbye to your family." She sets fire to the painting while Malcolm holds Phoebe down.

"No! Absolvo amitto amplus brevis."

"The curse."

"Semper me."

Phoebe makes sure, she holds both Jane and Malcolm. The three of them get sucked into the painting.

-c-

Prue, Piper and Paige leave the bookcase, the place is filled with smoke.

"The house is on fire?"

"Not the house, the painting... it's gotta be Malcolm's doing. He must be at the manor."

Phoebe appears.

"Phoebe, you're alive!"

"Yeah. Let's keep it that way."

Malcolm and Jane appear too."

"Malcolm... and Jane."

"She's a warlock."

"Stupid witch. Now you and your sisters are gonna end up burning to death."

He gets into his pocket to find nothing. Phoebe takes out the collar.

"Looking for this? Freeze them." Piper freezes them. "Where's Kit?"

"There she is. There she is."

Prue takes her up.

"I can't believe we almost forgot her."

Phoebe reads from the paper. "Verve omnes liberant." They disappear, leaving Malcolm and Jane in the fire.

-c-

Prue puts out the fire with the fire extinguisher.

"You know, I didn't want them to die. I just wanted them trapped in that house forever."

"Bright side? You won't have to worry about any complaints from the owner of the painting."

"And you'll never have to worry about anyone else getting a supernatural mayday from it."

"Yeah, well, thanks for getting ours, Phoebe."

They look at each other. Paige thinks about something.

"Hey, how did you get the collar from Malcolm?"

"Oh, I used the very complex, very different kind of smarts."

Prue gets it.

"You picked his pocket."

"I picked his pocket."

Piper looks unbelievingly at Phoebe.

"Phoebe!"

"What, he was a warlock... smartest thing I've ever done."

-c-

Dana and Piper are sitting at p3. Piper is reading from a paper.

"A new heating and cooling system, retrofitting, imported prestressed I-Beams, architectural flooring. Your estimate requires a quarter of million and a crew of 75. I gotta tell you, Dan. I'm not feeling real guilty about not helping Jenny with that paper."

"Well, actually, those were Phoebe's suggestions."

"Phoebe? Hah! Can you fix it cheap and fix it quick?"

"In a couple of days, sure."

"Great. You're hired. You can take that with you."

She gives him the papers. Dan stands up to stop before Prue, Paige and Phoebe.

"Hey Prue, Paige."

"Hi."

"Hello."

"Phoebe..."

"Hey."

"You got a minute?"

"Uh, yeah!" Dan sits down and Phoebe gets closer. "Is it about Piper?"

"No, it's actually about Jenny's paper."

"You know, I wasn't really myself that day. Is there a problem?"

Dan hands Phoebe her drawing. It's an egg with a pointer us and all sperm cells coming towards it with a pointer with says them.

"No, it's not due till Friday. But I really appreciate your help... I think."

"Uh... Yeah, okay."

She hides the paper

"I'd really appreciate if Jenny could do her own work in her handwriting using her own smarts... if you know what I mean."

"I certainly do!" He laughs and leaves. "All right..." He looks at Prue and Paige. "You don't wanna know."

"Uh huh!"

He leaves. Paige and Prue look at Phoebe.

"You know, this whole smart spell thing, it really just made me realize that there's a lot of cool information out there."

"I agree."

"And who knows? Maybe I'll go back to college, take some night classes. I'm a smart girl, I'll figure it out."

"Great, then we have two students in the house."

Paige smacks Prue on the arm.

"Just kidding. Just don't lose that common sense. We may need it to save the day again."

Piper sits down too.

"What are we talking about?"

"Right now, the job that I will not be getting."

She rips up the aptitude test.

"Smart move, Pheebs. Now, open your present."

"Oh! Wait... you guys got me shoes and a purse?"

"Very smart looking, wouldn't say, Piper?"

"Pure genius, Paige."

"Enough with that already."

Prue grabs Jenny's paper.

"Okay, you wanna explain this?"

"Okay.. Well, that's Piper."

"Ooh, sure!"

"And that's Dan."

"I see!"

"That's not funny."

"It's so is."

The girls laugh at the same time, even Piper.


	4. The Devil's music

Sorry for the long wait, hope you enjoy the new chapter and I'll try to update sooner. enjoy

* * *

The devil's music

Prue, Phoebe and Paige are sitting at a table in P4. The place is almost empty. The girls look around, bored. Phoebe can't hold herself any longer.

"This place couldn't be more dead if I was embalmed."

"Yeah, I think that we're gonna have to take that offer."

Paige looks at Prue.

"We certainly need the money from that guy."

Phoebe nods.

"What's this guy's name again?"

"Chris Barker."

"And he's not a loan shark or anything, is he?"

Prue starts shaking her head.

"No. He's a collector, an investor. And it's a no-interest loan that we can pay back any time. Trust me, he's not gonna miss the money."

"Mmm. Must be nice."

"And are you sure he doesn't want anything else from you Prue?"

Paige eyes Prue.

"Paige, do you really think I would do that."

"Off course not."

Phoebe jumps in to save Paige from further answering.

"When do we tell Piper?"

"Not until the club is in the black."

Piper comes up to them.

"So, you guys, you do like the name of the club, right? P4. Little nod to the power of four, to us, partners."

"Yeah, it's very clever." Phoebe looks around. "Uh, Piper, it's a little, uh, quiet in here. Don't you think?"

"It'll pick up once word of mouth kicks in."

"And when will that be, exactly?"

Both Paige and Prue eye Phoebe.

"Well, you can't predict these things exactly. It's not like starting a restaurant. Besides the bank's not gonna call the loan. It's not like we're gonna lose the house."

She leaves. Phoebe and Paige return their attention to Prue.

"Who said anything about losing house? We're not gonna lose the house, are we?"

"Prue, please tell me we won't lose the house."

"No, because we're gonna take that offer and trust Piper to put this place full with people."

"What people? Where is everybody?"

"Probably somewhere more interesting then here. Not that that's hard to find."

"Paige!"

"What, just stating the facts."

-c-

In another club on the other side of town Dishwalla is playing. Leo is walking around, looking for something or someone.

-c-

Backstage, a guy is leading a girl trough a door.

"So, you, like, produce their records or what?"

"No, no, nothing that creative." They start walking trough the hall. "I'm their new manager. I take care of things, whatever needs to be done, I do."

"Man, I can't believe this. This is like the most unbelievable thing that has ever happened to me."

"Ah, the night's young."

He opens a door to the another room.

"I can't believe you picked me."

"Well, you seemed like a good... soul. Plus, you said the magic words." The girl looks confused. "You said you'd do anything, remember?" The girl smiles again.

"Yes, yes. I do."

"All right, just wait inside. The band should be down any minute."

The manager opens the door.

"Thank you, thank you so much."

"Don't thank me yet."

He smiles painfully and lets her into the room. He closes the door behind her and leans against the wall, feeling guilty.

-c-

The girl is looking around in the room when she hears a noise. "Hello? Is somebody there? Hello?" A demon appears behind her. When she turns around and sees him, she starts screaming.

Once the screaming is over the manager walks in. He starts talking to nobody in peculiar. "Okay, that's it. No more." The demon appears behind him, but he doesn't notice. "I can't keep doing this. It's got to stop."

"We have a pact." The manager looks around terrified. "You get what you want and I get what I want." He opens his coat to reveal his stomach where the outline of a face, of someone who is clearly in pain, sticks out. The sound is heard of several screaming girls. The manager looks at it horrified.

-c-

The manager is walking out of a room and tries to get the attention of a guy who is walking by. "Excuse me." The guy just walks on. "Jerk." Leo walks by and stops. "You know where the bathroom is?"

Leo leads him to the side of the room. "Yeah, it's, uh, right over..." He pushes the manager up against the wall.

"Hey what is this?"

"An intervention."

Leo blows magic dust all over the manager.

-c-

"There is my number one guy in the world." Paige walks into Peter's office. She puts her arms around his back and kisses him on his cheek. "What you doin'?" He leans back into his chair and looks up at her.

"What does it look like? Working, but lucky for me a wonderful distraction, disguised as Paige Halliwell, comes to interrupt it. So on what occasion do I owe this visit."

He turns his seat around and Paige sits down on his lap.

"I was bored and had absolutely nothing to do, so I thought why don't I go bother my boyfriend a little bit."

"Well I'm happy that you did." He kisses her on the nose earning a smile. "Hey, could you maybe get me into P4 tonight."

"Trust me, you can get in there anytime you like."

Peter makes a sceptical face.

"Really? With Dishwalla playing, that's kinda bizarre."

"Dishwalla isn't playing at P4."

"I just heard it on the radio that they were."

-c-

Back at P4 Piper is looking at the expenditures, about $24,000 in red. "This is bad." She covers her face with her hands.

-c-

Paige is walking to her next class, when she decides to give Piper a call.

"With Piper."

"Hey Piper, it's Paige. On the one hand I want to congratulate you for getting Dishwalla…" She opens the door and gets out. "but on the other hand, how come you didn't tell me that you got them in the first place. I thought we were partners?"

"Paige, hold up, I can't follow you."

"According to the radio, Dishwalla is playing at your club tonight."

"That can't be right, I don't know of anything."

"Right, Piper it's all over the radio."

"Paige, I don't know of anything. I'm sure it is a mistake."

"Well then you better fix it, because if people come tonight and find out that Dishwalla isn't playing, P4 is dead."

"Thanks, Paige I really needed that right now."

"Hey don't work it out on me, I can't help it. I just thought I'd give you the heads up."

"Thanks Paige, how will I ever repay you?"

"Oh I don't know, making sure that we don't lose the house."

"What are you talking about?"

A guy walks against her, letting Paige drop all her books. "Great thanks." She bends down to get her books.

"Paige, what did you mean with losing the house?"

"Oh, never mind. Look Piper I've got to go cause my class is about to begin. Call me when you know what's going on, okay?"

''Alright, bye Paige."

"Yeah bye."

Piper puts down her phone right when she hears someone coming down the stairs. She looks around and sees Jenny coming down the stairs.

"You should keep that door locked, you know? Anyone could just walk in."

"Jenny? What are you doing here?"

"Am I breaking the law, right now? Being underage and all?"

She stops before Piper.

"No, we're not open. Actually, I don't know. Uh, what's your point, Jenny?"

"Well," She starts walking around Piper. "if you were open for business and I was here, would you have me arrested?" She stops on Piper's other side, making Piper turn around. "Because I think friendship counts for something. Even though we're not really friends yet, but at least we're neighbours and neighbours do favours for each other, right?"

Piper looks suspiciously at Jenny.

"What kind of favours?"

"I need a ticket to the show."

"What show?"

"It's all over the radio." She walks again to Piper's other side. "I have to see them, if I don't, I'll die."

"You're talking about Dishwalla right?"

"Yeah, who else?"

Well, that's to bad, cause I can't get you one. Besides I don't even know if there is going to be a show."

The manager of Diswhalla walks in.

"Piper Halliwell?"

Piper turns around to look at him and stands up.

"Yeah. Can I help you with something?"

"Jeff Carlton. I have to tell you when I heard about PQ, it was if the fate had smiled upon me."

"P4."

Jenny nods her hand behind Piper.

"Whatever. I manage Dishwalla."

He gives Piper his card while Jenny's mouth falls open.

"Dishwalla? The Dishwalla?"

"I've been looking for the right kind of place, something small, new intimate. The boys want the reacquaint themselves with the personal side of performing. They want to connect again. And I think your little hole in the wall here, is just what the doctor ordered."

"Dishwalla wants to play in my little hole in the wall?"

Piper starts smiling.

"I want them to. Don't you?"

Jenny smiles at Piper.

"Uh... yeah."

"Let's cross some T's and dot some I's."

He hands her the contract and Piper opens it Jenny uses this time to get the manager's attention.

"Uh, Mr. Carlton, sir? Do you think it will be possible for me to meet the band? I'd do almost anything."

He looks at Jenny with sympathy in his eyes.

"Be careful what you wish for, sweetheart."

-c-

Prue's on the phone with Barker, the man who is going to loan them the money.

"Prue, don't feel awkward."

"Well, it's a big deal."

"I know. Starting a business with that bank loan breathing down your neck can make things kind of scary."

"Yeah. On top of your loan."

"Hey, Listen. I have no doubt I'll be seeing my money again after your sister gets her club off the ground."

"Okay. And the terms are still the same?"

"Absolutely. No intrest."

"Uh, no, we'll, we'll pay you interest."

" Ok, fine. A quarter percent whatever. Now, speaking of getting off the ground, the plane trip to Paris is still open for discussion, isn't it?"

Prue laughs uncomfortably. She goes with her hand trough her hair trying to find a good reason to decline.

"Mr. Barker..."

"I mean, come on hasn't that raincheck burned a hole in your pocket by now?

"Look, I really appreciate your offer..."

"It's not an offer, Prue, it's a dinner request."

"In Paris."

"You know what they call French bread in France?"

"Bread."

Prue answers him dryly while he starts laughing.

"Exactly. Dinner in Paris is where it all begins."

Prue laughs again, but now because she can't believe what she is hearing.

"Okay, you know, why don't we just start with your loan, followed with us paying you back as soon as possible?"

"Oh, you're a hard bargainer."

"So are you."

"Oh, I haven't even begun to fight." Prue laughs again. "Paris?"

"Stop it."

"Never. I'll see you at the club, with the money."

"Okay, bye bye."

She walks into the kitchen, hanging up the phone, irritated. She walks up to Phoebe, who's drinking a tea.

"Well, it's all set. Mr. Barker's gonna meet us at the club, hand over the cheque and that'll be that."

"We're doing the right thing, aren't we?"

"Well, we're helping out our sister. That's always the right thing, right?"

Paige walks into the kitchen over to the closet. "What's the right thing?" She gets out a pack of cereals, sits down at the counter and starts eating out of the box.

"Getting a loan from Mr. Barker."

"Oh, is that still necessary then?"

"Why wouldn't it be? You were there to last night, you saw how sad it was in there."

Prue smacks Phoebe on her arm.

"Phoebe!"

"I'm only telling the truth."

Paige stops eating "Oh, don't you guys listen to the radio?"

"Why?"

Piper runs into the house yelling. "Guess what I did? Guess what I did? All by myself?" She stops at the counter.

"What?"

"You ready?"

"What?"

"Dishwalla is playing at your club."

Piper stamps her feet on the ground like a little child.

"Paige, you just spoiled my fun. But it doesn't matter cause nothing is spoiling my good mood today."

"So wait, Dishwalla is playing at your club?"

"I networked. Sent out feelers, sent off press releases and wouldn't you know it. Dishwalla decided to put P4 on their schedule. How's about that? P4 has officially been validated as the place to be. We're on the map." She hugs Phoebe and Prue while smiling at Paige. "I couldn't have done it without you, you patient" She kisses Prue. "most generous" Continuous with Phoebe "sisters in the whole wide world." She sends a kiss across the counter towards Paige right when the doorbells rings. "I'll get it." She leaves the kitchen.

-c-

She opens the door and finds Leo on the porch. She gives him a great hug, before letting him enter.

"Leo... this day just keeping getting better. Hi."

"Hi, uh, Piper, we have to talk."

He looks serious.

"Yeah...okay, uh... are you free tonight? Better be, 'cause you're my date. We have backstage passes, all access, baby, to see Dishwalla at P4. I made it happen."

"Uh, no, actually, I made it happen."

Piper stops.

"What?"

Prue, Phoebe and Paige walk in.

"Yeah, look, I want to tell you sooner, but I didn't have time. I had to move fast. There's a demon involved."

"A demon?"

"Yeah, he'll be at your club, tonight."

"But, no, their manager, Jeff Carlton, came to me and, and booked them himself."

"I know. I cast a spell on him."

"You what?"

Piper backs away from Leo.

"I sort of cribbed it from one of the other witches I look after. I suggested to Carlton that he get Dishwalla into your club."

Prue interferes before Piper has the chance to explode.

"Why didn't you just come to us?"

Piper doesn't give Leo the time to answer.

"Because he knows I would have been pissed off. What are you doing?"

"My job."

"Your job? What are we, like, Leo's witches now? We're supposed to kill a demon during sold-out concert? Are you nuts?"

Phoebe tries to intervene, but without luck.

"Piper..."

"No, Leo. Anywhere else but not there... not my place."

He just looks at her, not able to say anything. Piper walks away from him, so Leo turns his attention to the other sisters.

"The band's manager made a bargain with masselin."

"That's the demon?"

"Yeah. In exchange for human sacrifice, masselin will make Carlton rich and powerful by attracting successful bands to him."

Phoebe can't believe it.

"Are you telling me that Dishwalla is hooked up with a demon?"

"No, they don't know anything about the demon."

"So, these innocent... what happens to them?"

"They're devoured by masselin. Consumed for their souls."

"Gross."

"The more souls masselin collects, the more successful Carlton becomes. You can't destroy the demon without first freeing those trapped within him."

Piper can't help but interfere again.

"All this freeing and destroying, is this in between sets or during the encore?"

"Look," Leo walks up to Piper. "I know you're upset."

"No...no... I skated past upset just after you came in the door. Right now, I'm at furious."

"We have to talk."

"You bet your whitelighter ass, we do."

"Later. I have to go."

He orbs out.

"See, now this is exactly why you should never date a co-worker." Phoebe sees Piper's face. "It was a joke. Oh, honey, I'm sorry."

"How could he do this?"

"Well, it sounds like he didn't have a choice and quiet frankly, I don't think we do either."

"Well, I have to get to the office and call this investor." Prue goes on quietly only for Phoebe and Paige's ears. "Barker... gotta talk to Barker." Phoebe and Paige go over to Piper. Paige rubs her back.

"Hey remember ten minutes ago. You said that nothing could destroy your good mood today."

"Well, that was before Mr. whitelighter showed up."

Phoebe takes her hand and starts moving.

"C'mon, let's check the book, that will distract you."

"Do I have to?"

"C'mon Piper, are you a witch or not?"

"Alright, alright, I'm coming."

Paige and Phoebe smile at each other as they follow Piper to the attic.

-c-

Outside some club people are putting the band's instruments in a truck. Daryl is there talking to the manager, showing him a picture.

"It's Tina Hitchens. She's been missing since last night when she came to this club."

The manager doesn't listen as he is giving directions to the movers.

"Yo... the address is on the front seat. P4!"

"You're playing P4? Piper Halliwell's place?"

"Yeah, so I don't have a lot of time."

"Oh, you've got time for this."

Daryl pushes Tina's picture under his nose.

"I answered your question."

"I didn't ask one."

"You asked me if I saw Tina whoever."

"I don't believe I did. Did you?"

"What?"

"See her?"

"I didn't see anybody, inspector."

"Look again."

"Listen.. you have any idea how many girls like that show up to something like this? Hundreds of them. Thousands. And they all look the same. Short skirt, tight tops. Like sexy little peas in a pod."

"So what difference does it make if one of them disappears?"

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to."

"Why aren't you out hassling her boyfriend?"

"Did that already. Now, I'm hassling you."

"I haven't seen her. What's with the Gestapo routine?"

"It tends to follow the acting like a suspect routine."

"Am I under arrest?"

"Not yet. Melanie Jenkins?"

Daryl shows another picture.

"No."

"Brittany Tyler?"

Daryl shows him the rest of his pile photos.

"None of them. Never saw them."

"They all disappeared from clubs all around the country. Clubs that your band played in. That doesn't concern you?"

"Not in the slightest. If we're done here, see ya around."

The manager leaves.

"Count on it"

-c-

In the attic, Phoebe has find masselin in the book of shadows. She gets Piper and Paige's attention and they come closer.

"There's Leo's problem."

"It's our problem."

"You want to know what the real problem is?"

"Oh, do tell."

Phoebe looks bored away from Piper.

"Never mind."

"Thank you."

"So, how do we vanquish this creep?"

"Let's find out. Shall we?"

"And what was with that attitude?"

Piper backs away from the book with her arms crossed.

"What attitude?"

"Leo... it was like he was angry that I was angry. I have right to be angry, don't I?" She sees Phoebe's face. "I don't want talk about it?"

"Then don't."

"Eww".

Piper comes back to the book to see what Paige has found.

"What?"

"Look at masselin's victims."

"Yeah..." Paige reads aloud from the book. "Trapped within the demon. The unfortunates one kept alive, their souls tortured for the pleasure he gets from their suffering. We got to get them out of there."

"With what? Demonic Ipecac?"

Paige nods. "Actually, yeah. That seems to be the idea." She starts reading on. "The demons seeks willing, trusting souls, delivered by the one who sealed the pact."

Phoebe answers.

"The manager. So we have to get close to Carlton."

"But how are we going to do that?"

"Well, I'm already close." They look at Piper. "And as far as we know, I'm a willing, trusting soul... a sucker. Someone who falls for a quick line from a pretty face."

"Will you please stop that?"

"You're right. Fine. Leo is the least of my worries."

Phoebe looks again at the book.

"Right. We'll worry about that tomorrow."

"I don't think I can wait that long."

"You're gonna have to. Because tonight we have some major demon-ass-kicking to do."

Paige smiles at Phoebe.

-c-

The manager is standing in the backroom of P4. Masselin appears before him.

"Cops are asking me questions. And you know what? They're not gonna catch you, no, sir. They're gonna catch me. All right, okay! I'm out. I'm done with it. No more souls. The pact, the agreement is now officially null and void."

Masselin sets him on fire, after a minute the fires disappear. The manager turns towards masselin.

"You will honor your agreement, Mr. Carlton. You'll bring me more souls."

"Okay, okay."

Carlton starts crying.

-c-

Inside Prue's office stands Chris Barker.

"So, what you're telling me is that you no longer need a white knight to rescue you and your sisters from debt."

"No!"

He walks to the front of her desk.

"But we have a deal."

"Well, what we had was an agreement to make a deal and I no longer agree."

"I see. This wouldn't have anything to do with a certain band choosing to play at P4 tonight, would it?" Prue looks at him suspiciously. "Word travels fast."

"Yeah, well, Piper pulled us out of the fire."

"Yes, in a doing so, revealed to me quite a diamond in the rough."

"Meaning what?"

"Well, meaning, I understand you're showing me the door, but I think I rather like this party. I think your sister's little venture is on its way to great success. Which is why I've already gone to your bank and made an offer to pick up your loan."

"You didn't?"

"Did!"

Prue gets out of her seat and stops before him.

"Ok, Mr. Barker... we have a relationship..."

"Yes and you've brought so many valuable items into my field of view. I just have this feeling that you sister's club is gonna be the best one yet. Could you put me on the guest list for tonight? Me plus one. I'd like to see what I'm buying."

"Ok, I am asking, nicely, for your own sake, not to go through with this."

"Is that a threat, Ms. Halliwell? Be careful. You could be jeopardizing a very profitable relationship. 2 passes. I'd like a booth, too, close to the stage."

He leaves Prue steaming with fury.

-c-

Piper, Phoebe and Paige are making a potion in the kitchen. Piper looks sceptical.

"How is this gonna work?"

"We're just going to slip masselin a little extra-strength anti-acid. And if the book of shadows is right, the demon should disappear like a demonic gas bubble, freeing his victims, leaving them safe and sound."

"Phoebe, we can't even give our cat a vitamin. How are we gonna get this down a demon's throat?"

"In this?"

Phoebe holds up a balloon.

"What is that?"

"It's a balloon."

"Stating the obvious, no what are you going to do with that?"

"Well Paige, I'm going to fill it and getting him to eat it."

"Okay, where is it?"

Paige and Phoebe turn towards Piper.

"Where is what?"

"The spoonful of sugar big enough to hide that thing?"

"You're looking at her."

Paige and Piper look at Phoebe.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, the only way to get to masselin, is through Carlton, right? So all I'll have to do is get close to Carlton, pretend I'm some choice tidbit. Then we get masselin to swallow this."

"Right before he swallows you, Phoebe. No, it's too dangerous."

"Well, unless you have a better idea, it's our only choice. You, Paige and Prue will back me up. I'll be fine."

"Well, at least let me do it then, I could shield him off."

"We don't know that for sure Paige, your power doesn't work on every demon and besides my self-defence does."

"I hate him."

Piper puts something in the blender. Phoebe and Paige turn around while Phoebe answers Piper.

"Of course you hate him. He's a demon. Wait, we are talking about the demon, right?"

"He didn't even have the decency to ask me first. He at least could have discussed it with me."

"Oh, Leo!"

"I mean, can you believe him? He acted as if we've never has a relationship before. Like it was just business." She turns on the blender without putting the lid on. Food flies everywhere. "Oh! Oh!" Phoebe hits the off-button.

"Got to put the lid on, honey!"

Phoebe puts the lid on the blender and puts it on.

"And I saw the future too, you know. Leo and I get married. A marriage in the future imply some sort of relationship in the present ... the question is: where's the relationship."

"Somewhere between confusing and complicated?"

"Well Phoebe and I are dead in the future, so let's just hope that that future doesn't come true, alright?"

Phoebe looks at Paige.

"What do you mean with you were dead, I saw you in there, alive and kicking."

"Well maybe kicking but not alive." She sees Phoebe's confused face. "I orbed and that implies that I was a whitelighter and that implies that I have to die cause that's only way to become a whitelighter, or do you know another way."

Piper waves her arms.

"Hello, back to my problem."

Phoebe looks at Piper.

"Just talk to him, honey? It'll be okay."

"I'd rather just freeze him and kick him in the..." The doorbell rings. "That better not be him."

"In the shins?"

"Not exactly.".

-c-

Piper opens the door.

"Piper?"

"Dan, hi."

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure! What's up?"

She lets him enter.

"Jenny... Did you tell her she could go see Dishwalla tonight?"

"No, no! She can't go!"

"She said you said it was all right."

"Well, I didn't exactly tell her it wasn't. But things were happening kind of fast."

"Well, she's in her room right now, picking out her clothes."

"Oh god! Okay... I'll go talk to her."

As she opens the door again, she sees Leo.

"Hi."

"Hello!"

"Listen, I was hoping that we could..." He sees Dan. "talk."

"Sure... Leo this is..."

Leo walks in.

"Dan Gordon!"

Leo shakes hands with Dan. Piper looks confused

"Wait. You know him?"

"What? Are you kidding? He used to play second base for the Mariners. Ha had an all-star season going till he blew out his knee sliding into home. I still think you were safe."

"So do I."

"I'm Leo."

"Nice meeting you."

Piper comes between the two guys.

"No, it's not. You follow baseball?"

"Yeah!"

"You have time for baseball, but you don't have time to tell me about you-know-what, before you-know-who shows up you-know-where?"

Dan looks uncomfortably at the two.

"Uh, Listen. If you two need to talk or something, I can..."

"No, no no. We don't need to talk. Leo stops by occasionally to fix things. Phoebe or Paige can show him around." Phoebe shows up. "See Phoebe is already there. Let's go talk to Jenny."

"It was nice meeting you."

"Yeah, you too."

Dan and Piper leave. Leo looks at Phoebe.

"She's just a little upset."

"Yeah... I don't blame her."

-c-

Prue is on her way to the elevator when Daryl passes her.

"Right... and this is where you say Darryl and I say Prue and then you say something like what are you doing here?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Andy didn't have time to teach me all the steps to this dance but I'm a quick study."

"I have to go."

Prue turns around.

"To P4?" She turns back to Daryl. "As usual, I barely know what's going on. And I don't like it."

"Look, I will explain everything to you later."

"But you never do. I know it's all about keeping me safe and I respect that. What do you know about Jeff Carlton?"

"I can't."

"This is about my job. Andy is gone but I'm not Andy. I'm not saying that you have to tell me about everything. But whenever you and your sisters get involved, the whole playing field gets little crazy."

"Yeah. And a lot more dangerous."

"I'm a cop. Stop protecting me, Prue."

"You have absolutely no idea."

"I'm an imaginative guy. I have plenty of ideas. I even had you four working for the CIA for while. What matters is you and I work out some kind of relationship. We're gonna need to communicate or I'm gonna become a very unsociable."

"Okay."

"The missing girls... and Jeff Carlton."

"We're working on it."

"I figured."

"Look, Darryl, just trust us, okay? We've got this one for right now."

"Sure."

"I have to go."

She leaves.

"Be careful."

-c-

Dan and Piper are standing in Jenny's room. She is picking out her clothes.

"Jenny, the state can shut me down."

"How are they gonna find out? Are you gonna tell 'em? 'Cause I'm not gonna tell 'em." She shows Piper two skirts. "Do you like the read or denim?"

Dan tries to convince her.

"Jenny..."

She walks around the bed.

"Yeah! Sure. Let's hear from uncle Dan. Who never in his life faked an I.D. or snuck into a bar. Who never did anything wrong. Ever."

"We're talking about you."

"No, we're talking about Piper and she said I could go see the show."

"I never said that... Jenny, I'm sorry, but I can't let you in the club."

"Your mom and dad, they put me in charge…"

"Right.. everybody's in charge... but not me. Not ever. Why is that?"

Jenny starts to cry and storms out of the room.

"I'm sorry. She's just feeling, you know, a little..."

"Betrayed... it's okay. I know the feeling."

Piper leaves too.

-c-

Paige enters P4 with Peter. She sees Phoebe and Prue standing.

"Peter, why don't you get yourself something to drink. I need to talk with my sisters."

"Sure thing."

Paige comes closer to her two sisters right when she hears Phoebe asking Prue about Chris Barker.

"You didn't leave any passes for that investor guy, did you?"

"No way. The bouncer has his order. Chris Barker is not allowed. The last we need is for Piper to find out she's gonna lose her club."

"If the bank accepts his offer..."

"One hellish complication at a time. Hey Paige. Wait you brought Peter. You do realise we have some demon vanquishing to do right?"

"Relax, I told him that I had to help my sister tonight cause the place was going to be swarmed."

Prue looks still sceptical but returns her attention to Phoebe.

"Okay, do you have the poison pill?"

She shows them her purse, that's full with balloons filled with potion.

"Armed and dangerous."

"Good! 'Cause here comes demon boy." The manager just entered the club. "Positions." Prue says while giving Piper a nod. Piper gets it and goes over to the manager.

"Mr. Carlton."

"Nice crowd. Is the band here?"

"Yep. They came in the back way. They're right over there. Everything's ready."

"Better be. I don't want any problems."

He walks away.

"That's too bad."

"Talking to yourself again, I see."

Piper turns around to find Leo.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm watching over things. It's what I do, remember?"

"I remember when it didn't use to be a job."

"Look! This isn't easy for me either, Piper, you know."

"Leo, I really can't talk about this right now... Excuse me."

She walks away from him.

-c-

Phoebe, Prue and Paige see Carlton standing alone.

"Okay, Pheebs. Go get him."

"Keep an eye on me."

"You're kind of hard to miss in that outfit."

Piper looks at Phoebe.

"Yeah, where did you get those clothes?"

"Your closet."

Phoebe walks off. Paige looks at Prue.

"I swear, I had no idea that I still had those."

Prue smiles at Paige while looking back at Phoebe who just stopped in front of the manager.

-c-

"Excuse me? Aren't you Jeff Carlton?"

"Yes."

"Yeah! I recognized you from that MTV top 10 video things last month."

"Somebody actually saw that?"

"It was really good."

"Taped that almost 2 months ago."

"I didn't even know there was such a thing as a music manager. Let alone what they did until you came on the scene. I mean, who knew? I'm now taking a class in music management at the learning Annex. You're my inspiration."

"Really?"

"Cross my heart. Hey, do you have any pointers? I would do... just about anything to get the inside scoop."

He smiles.

"Anything, huh? Wanna meet the band?"

"Yeah."

"This way."

-c-

Prue, Paige and Piper watch the manager leading Phoebe away from the crowd.

"Where is he taking her?"

"In the back."

"All right, let's go."

-c-

The manager locks the door behind him and hurries towards another room.

"What's the rush?"

"No time to waste."

He pushes Phoebe into the room and quickly closes the door behind her. She looks around in the room, but sees nothing. All she hears are cracks.

-c-

Back in the club Piper tries to open the door with no luck. "Oops." Prue uses her power to open it. They see Carlton and Piper freezes him when he tries to run away.

-c-

Back in the room masselin appears behind Phoebe. She immediately goes into her pocket to get the potion, but the demon is already gone before she can throw it. Prue, Piper and Paige come in.

"Are you all right?"

"Did you get him?"

"No."

"What?"

"I think we need a bigger balloon."

"Ok. We're gonna have to regroup. Come on, let's go."

Prue leads the way back into the crows. Right when the sisters are out of sight, Carlton unfreezes.

-c-

Back in the club, Phoebe does her story.

"He's huge, and ugly and I really think we need a bigger balloon."

"Maybe we just came in too soon."

"Maybe he saw the poison."

"Well, in any case, the spook's spooked."

Phoebe continues.

"And took the trapped souls with him. The ones that we have to save."

Prue stays calm.

"Look, we don't know for sure if the demon is gone, is he is still here, then he's gonna feed again and Carlton's the one to feed him. Do you still have the poison pill?"

"Yes, but I don't think it's gonna be enough."

"Phoebe, stop. All right, uh, we need to cover the exits, look for Carlton, if we see him grab anybody, Piper, you freeze the room and we'll get into positions."

"I wish we could just stuff his head in a toilet and make him cough up the demon."

"Oh, honey, still upset with Leo?"

Phoebe takes Piper's hand.

"I'm talking about Carlton."

"I can't keep up."

She turns around and walks away. Her sisters follow her example.

-c-

Back in the backstage masselin is talking to Carlton.

"You brought witches to destroy me."

"What are you talking about? No, I didn't. I swear."

"To whom do you swear?"

He gets down on his knees.

"To you. Just you. I didn't know about witches."

"Your most recent selection, she holds the key to my destruction. Take it from her."

"But why? They know about you, they know about me."

"Take it from her and bring the witches to me."

"All right, all right. But how am I gonna get 'em back here? I mean, they're gonna be a little suspicious."

"Tempt them with an innocent soul."

-c-

On the outside of P4, Jenny's sneaking in.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry... Pardon me... Excuse me."

She arrives at the door right when Barker is talking to the bouncer.

"I'm sorry but if you don't have a ticket and your name isn't in the guest list, I can't let you in."

"Try looking under G for Grant"

He gives him a $50 note.

"Oh, here you are, Mr. Grant."

"Thank you so much."

Jenny sneaks in behind them.

-c-

Back in the club, Dishwalla starts playing. Paige is walking in the club looking for Carlton when someone grabs her arm and pulls her towards him. "Hey!" She is about to put up her shield when she notices it's Peter "Ow, it's you."

"You look disappointed."

"Me never, but I told you that I have to help my sister."

"Yeah, okay, one kiss and I'll let you go."

"Okay."

-c-

Piper sees Paige and Peter and looks jealous.

Leo appears behind Piper.

"We were once like that."

Piper turns around, startled.

"I wish you'd quit doing that."

"What's happening?"

"Paige and Peter are…"

"I meant the demon."

"Right, off course you did." She smiles awkwardly. "Well we're on it, Leo. We're just waiting for Carlton to do his thing."

"Look, you think I like this?"

"Leo..."

"Do you think I like to not being with you?"

"Ok, can we cut the crap? I know what you have to do. I always have. The question is: What do you want? What do you wanna do? With me? With us? Do you ever think about that?

"All the time."

"You ever want to discuss it with me?"

"Yes. It's just the timing always seems.."

They notice Darryl coming in.

"Seems to suck. Okay, hold that thought. Don't let go. Just hold it." She goes where Prue is. "Morris is here?"

"What?" Prue sees Mr. Barker. "Whoa! Oh, boy!"

"What are you looking at? He's over there."

"Huh, yeah, okay."

Prue grabs Piper and runs.

-c-

Jeff sees Phoebe and motions the security to come closer.

"See that honey by the stage in the silver thing. She's got something in her purse."

"Something illegal?"

"Extremely. Get it out of here."

"You got it."

-c-

The security goes where Phoebe is and grabs her purse.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"Weapons check."

"There's nothing in th…" The security finds the balloon. He and Phoebe both grab the balloon which makes it burst all over Phoebe's skirt. It starts smoking. The security backs away.

"Oh! What the hell is that?"

"That is my sister killing me for destroying her skirt which means a $75 dry-cleaning bill."

-c-

Jeff walks up to Jenny.

"Hey there, Jenny. Hello, I remember you. You're friend of Piper Halliwell, right?"

"And Phoebe, Paige and Prue. We're like sisters."

"Listen. Would you like to meet the band?"

"Are you serious? Man, I'd do anything to meet them."

"Follow me."

He starts taking her backstage.

-c-

Prue, Piper and Paige are waiting for Phoebe at the bar. Paige sees Barker coming up to them. "Prue, problems at four o'clock." Prue looks around.

"Problems where?"

"Here."

She says right when Barker speaks.

"Hello, Prue."

"Hi, Mr. Barker."

Piper whispers to Prue.

"Where's Phoebe?"

"Let me guess. Piper Halliwell, right?"

"Yeah! Who are you?" She turns to Prue. "Who's he?"

"The name's Chris Barker and I'm gonna be taking over everything from here on out."

"Wait! What?"

Right then Darryl shows up.

"Piper, we've gotta talk."

"Not now."

She returns her attention to Barker.

"I'd be willing to discuss you staying on. However, in a diminished capacity, of course."

Phoebe comes up to them.

"Jenny's here with Carlton."

"What?"

"Jenny's here?"

She shows them her skirt.

"And I lost the potion."

Paige points at her skirt.

"And my skirt. That's a 75$ dry-cleaning bill."

Darryl tries to attract their attention again.

"Piper, it's important."

Baker pushes Darryl back. "Yeah, wait in line, pal." Darryl shows Barker his badge.

"Hey, why don't you step to the back."

"Okay, everybody hold it."

Piper freezes the entire room right when Phoebe shows Prue and Paige where Jenny is. "Look. They see Jenny and Carlton are about to leave the room.

"Oh my God."

They run to follow Carlton and Jenny, but the place unfreezes before they can reach them.

"Freeze them again."

"They're through the door."

-c-

Carlton pushes Jenny into the room and closes the door behind her. "Hello?" "Masselin appears and she screams."

-c-

The girls finally arrive at the room. Piper is ready to go in, but Piper stops her.

"Wait. Hold it. Stop."

"Jenny's in there."

"Yeah, but we can't kill Masselin without the potion."

"Well, we can't just stand here. She's gonna die."

Right then Carlotn opens the door and Prue uses her power against him to make him fly across the room.

"Help us."

"He'll kill me. He'll burn the flesh off my bones for eternity."

Piper bends down in front of him.

"Listen up, skid mark. You tell us how to save Jenny and get Elvis out of the building, or spending an eternity in hell is gonna be the least of your worries."

"There's nothing you can do."

"We can break the pact and free you from Masselin."

She stands back up.

"Believe me, if I could help you, I would. But if you go in there, he's gonna swallow you whole and you'll still be alive."

"That's not a bad idea."

Prue looks at Piper.

"What?"

"Where's the demon?"

Carlton waves his head to a door.

"Through that door."

Piper looks back at her sisters.

"I got a plan. We get eaten."

Phoebe looks unbelievingly at Piper.

"I'm sorry, we get what?"

"She has completely lost her mind."

"No Paige, I haven't. Once we're inside, Prue, you use your power to blow him up."

"From the inside?"

"Mmm hmm."

Phoebe points to the door.

"Who's to say that we won't lose our powers once we get in there. Maybe that's exactly what he wants."

"Yeah, well, we don't really have a choice, Phoebe. The poison pill is gone."

"Is it?" She shows her skirt with the poison. "Back up."

"Phoebe, what are you..."

She kicks the door open. Masselin appears.

"It's time to join your friends, witches."

Prue, with her powers, makes the skirt with the poison fly into Masselin. Barker comes in right when Masselin is being destroyed. "What is going on back here?" Masselin blows up and green stuff is flying everywhere. Luckily Paige gets her shield up in time, so the girls don't get splattered, Barker isn't so lucky and gets goo all over him. All the victims lie on the floor. The girls help everyone up. Piper turns to Jenny.

"We gotta get her home."

Darryl comes in, stopping beside Carlton.

"Prue, what's going on here? Someone wanna clue me in?"

"You're arresting a kidnapper."

"And rescuing his victims. Good job."

"Trust me. That's all what you wanna know."

" I guess that's all I need to know."

He arrests Carlton. Prue bends down next to Barker who is eying his clothes.

"Mr. Barker... here's what you need to know. This place is ours. The ups, the downs, the good and especially the bad. It's all ours. Now if you ever bother us again, you won't have to ask if I'm threatening you. Are we clear?

"Yeah!"

"Good."

She stands up and goes back into the club where Dishwalla is still playing. The girls enjoy the rest of their evening together.

-c-

The next morning, in the conservatory, Piper is signing some papers when Prue, Phoebe and Paige come in. They sit down.

"Paying bills?"

"Every last one. For this month, at least."

"Thanks to Leo." Piper gives Phoebe her evil look. "Well, technically if it wasn't for him, you would've never landed Dishwalla."

"I suppose. And technically if we hadn't vanquished a demon, your client, Chris Barker, wouldn't have abandoned his hostile takeover. The bank called... and told me Mr. Barker didn't have the stomach for gruesome stage theatrics. He's withdrawing his offer."

Prue, Phoebe and Paige give Piper their guilty faces.

"I'm sorry."

"He was just supposed to help. We didn't expect a double cross."

"Phoebe and I only suspected him off trying to look good for Prue."

Prue gives Paige her dirty look.

"It's okay. I mean, I understand why you didn't want to hurt my feelings but you could have told me the truth."

They look at Piper with their puppy face and Prue answers with her cute voice. "I said I was sorry."

"We're sorry."

"It's just dawning on me that personal relationships and business don't mix well at all." The doorbell rings. "I got it." Piper gets up.

Prue looks at her sisters.

"Why were you trying to blame it all on me?"

-c-

Piper answers the door. It's Leo.

"Hi."

"Hi."

She lets him in.

"Uh, thanks. For everything."

"Just doing my job. Do you wanna come in, sit down?"

"I'd love to..."

"But you can't. We got Jenny home safe. Dan doesn't know she was at the club. But are you sure she won't remember anything?"

"I took care of it with a little hocus pocus."

"So you erase memories now?"

"No, I make pain go away. When I can... sometimes, I can't, no matter how hard I try."

"And Masselin's others victims?"

"They'll be fine. No memories of Masselin or Carlton."

"Good."

Piper looks down.

"Piper, did you mean what you said?"

"When?"

"Couple of months ago, when I almost died and you saved my life. I left and you said... that you loved me."

"I thought you were gone."

"Well, sometimes I linger... Did you mean it?"

"Yeah, I meant it..." She starts laughing. "You... you linger?"

"What about now?"

"I still mean it."

"But..."

"But we can't keep doing this. I can't keep doing this. I feel like all I do is wait around for you to show up and then when you do, it's just not... quite right."

"Well, I'm just... I'm doing what I thought you wanted me to do, Piper. You're the one who didn't want me to clip my wings."

"And you shouldn't. Not for me. But that doesn't make it any easier for us."

"What are we gonna do?"

"I don't know, Leo."

He hears a jingle and Piper notices it.

"Go. It's ok. I understand."

He kisses her.

"I'll see you."

He orbs out. She looks down sadly and goes out to get some fresh air, where she sees Dan, who is just getting his mail. He notices her and she waves before pretending to go back inside. Without knowing she is looking he gives a nod of approval, making Piper smile.


	5. She's a man, baby, a man!

Please review

**She's a man, baby, a man!**

The party in P3 is getting to his end when Phoebe makes her way over to Piper and Paige. She is waving a fan, clearly sweating from the hot weather. She sits down next to Paige on one of the stools.

"Oh, I cannot believe this heat wave. It's 2 a.m. How can it be so hot when there's no sun?"

Piper is also waving a paper in front of her. "Tell me about it." Phoebe leans over the bar and gets an ice cube. "The Cranberries are playing an animal right benefit here on Saturday and it's going to be a million degrees in here."

Paige laughs when she notices the guys stopping to watch Phoebe.

"Well Phoebe certainly isn't helping to keep those guys cool."

While closing her register Piper also notices Phoebe with the ice cube and the guys checking her out.

"Uh, Phoebe... you keep making like you're on red shoes diaries and I'm going to have to bust out a can of man repellent."

"I can't help it."

Piper waves her arms to the guys, signalling that they have to move. "All right, people, move a long. Nothing to see here." Phoebe smiles appreciatively at the guys. Piper walks over to her sisters. "Goodness. Am I going to have to hose you down?"

Phoebe stops running the cube around her neck and leans forward. "I can't help it. It's not my fault. I'm in a highly excited state right now. Not that I'd mind being hosed down with water. I feel like I'm on fire. Feel my forehead."

Piper touches Phoebe's forehead, following Paige's example.

"Phoebe, you're burning up."

"You really are hot, literally speaking."

Paige starts waving a paper in Phoebe's direction.

"I know, tell me about it." Piper gets a wet towel, and sits down on the other side of Phoebe. "Something's happening to me. Something really freaky."

"What else is new?"

Piper gives Paige a glance before returning her attention to Phoebe.

"Sweetie, uh, I think you need to call a doctor."

"But I... I... I don't feel sick. I just... I feel..." She puts the towel on her forehead. "I feel hot, aroused. Uh... I've been having this dream. This... sex dream." She notices Paige and Piper's face. "It's not like I haven't dreamt about sex before, because I have, you know. But this... this is different. This feels real. Swank penthouse love den, candles, satin sheets..."

Paige covers Phoebe's mouth. "Okay we got it, don't need to go into details there." She lowers her hand again. "We really don't need the picture. I mean… eew."

"But that's not all. Every night it's with a different man... telling me that I'm irresistible and then we... lets just say we could win the golden medal in the Hugh Hefner Olympics."

"What did I tell you about giving us a visual picture?"

"Sorry, but I just don't know what I should do?"

"I still don't get why this is a bad thing?"

Phoebe looks back at Piper.

"No. It's a good thing. It's... it's a very good thing. Until I kill them."

"That's how your dream ends? You kill the guy?"

"Each and every night, Piper. I told you, something is wrong with me."

"There's nothing wrong with you. It's a dream. A metaphor for an extreme sexual frustration. Trust me, I should know." Paige can't help but snort. Piper throws another towel towards Paige in response. Prue comes in and sits down next to Paige, catching Piper's last sentence.

"Oh, good. We're decoding men."

"Prue, what are you doing here?"

"I can tell you what I'm not doing. I'm not lighting candles. I'm not getting a back rub and I'm not running a hot bubble bath for two."

"Hmm. Things didn't go well with Alan?"

Phoebe asks while Paige gives Prue her drink.

"Well, see, that's the thing. I'm not really sure. I mean, third date, hot night, romantic dinner, and then he drops me off with barely even a kiss good night. I'm a little confused."

She takes a sip from Paige's drink while Piper continues.

"Well, that's not necessarily an officially rejection. I mean, when they say 'I'll call you' that's the kiss of death. Maybe he just got nervous."

"Yeah or maybe he's just not interested. I mean, I gave out all the signals for him to move forward and he ran away. Men don't just run away when you give them all the signals, right? So, what gives?"

"God, am I glad that I don't have to worry about things like that anymore."

"Yeah, yeah Paige, we all know the perfection that Peter is."

Paige throws the towel back to Piper. Phoebe stands up.

"Okay. That's enough talk about men for me! I need to go home and take a long, cold shower and have a good night's sleep. I hope."

"Sweet dreams. Don't kill anyone." Prue looks confused at Piper. "Don't ask."

-c-

Phoebe's wrestling while asleep. In her dream a guy is standing before her. "I can't believe we're doing this. You've got to be the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on." The guy is thrown on the bed and his shirt ripped open. A woman sits down on top of him, her hands going up and down his chest. "Either I'm dreaming or I'm falling in love." The woman smiles. "Oh, man, I'm definitely falling in love. Where have you been my entire life? You're irresistible." As he says that, the woman's tongue shapes into a snake and goes down the man's mouth. Phoebe awakes screaming.

-c-

Prue walks in her office. She gets a little mirror out of her purse and checks her hair and make-up. Once she is content, she runs back out and tries to act normal while looking at an auction item. When a guy walks around the corner, she quickly gets up to him.

"Ooh, Alan, hi!"

Alan keeps on walking, making Prue follow him.

"Hi. Man, it's hot, huh? Bad day for the a/c to be on the fritz."

"Yeah, bad day. Uh, listen, Alan."

She makes him stop by getting in front of him. He looks at the elevator. "Hey, Davis, can you hold the elevator, please? Thanks." He turns his attention back to Prue. "Sorry, I'm late for a meeting."

"Okay, uh, Alan, just out of curiosity. Did something happen on our date last night to upset you... or something?"

"Upset? No, no, not at all. Actually, I had a great time. We should do it again. I'll call you."

He gets into the elevator while Darryl passes him to come out. He catches Prue's speaking to herself. "The kiss of death."

"Speaking of deadly kisses, I need to speak to you, Prue."

"Sure, Darryl."

They start walking towards Prue's office again.

"Everything okay?"

"You know, you're a guy. Maybe you can explain this to me. Why is it that one moment guys are sending out all these signals and then, the next, they just turn them off like a switch? What do you men want anyway?" Darryl opens the door for Prue to her office. "Well, it's nice to see that while romance may be dead, chivalry isn't." Prue sits down behind her desk and Darryl before it. "So, what's up, Morris?"

"Four men have been killed over the last four nights ever since this heat wave started. I think the murders are going to continue but I don't have any suspects."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Look. You and I have got this game we play, right? You know that I know you've got a secret. You also know I don't want to know what it is. But if in any way it can help stop this..."

He gets the pictures of the victims out of his bag and shows them to her.

"Oh my god. What happened to them?"

"Severe cerebral trauma. Although the medical examiner can't figure out exactly how. He also can't figure out how of the men were drained of all their testosterone. That's not something you find everyday. I need help on this one, Prue. The kind of help I think only you can provide."

"Do the victims have anything else in common?"

She lays the pictures back down.

"They were each members of a dating service called Fine Romance. I've already got the place staked out. But they've got too many clients for me to watch and too many potential suspects for me to track. If the pattern continues, somebody's going to die tonight. I know it and I can't stop it."

"I'll see what I can do."

"I don't want you to get hurt. Find out what you can, slip it to me. The brass is watching me on this one. This can't turn out to be another unexplained case."

He gets up and leaves Prue to her thoughts.

-c-

Phoebe's lying on the couch with the fans going. Piper brings Phoebe some ice tea and pickles, while Paige turns another fan towards Phoebe. Phoebe immediately takes the can of the tray and puts it to her forehead, trying to cool off. Piper sits down at Phoebe's feet while Paige takes a seat a cross of Phoebe. "I'm telling you, guys. Last night's dream was no dream. Or premonition even. It was real. I felt it. I was so turned on and then... and then... I killed him." She drinks from the can. Piper starts cleaning the thermometer.

"Phoebe, you didn't kill anyone."

"I could feel his body shake uncontrollably beneath mine."

"Remember the thing I told you yesterday about you making pictures in my head that I don't want there?"

Paige reaches towards the jar of pickles and starts trying to open it, without much success. Piper leans forwards and puts the thermometer in Phoebe's mouth.

"And now you're even making me sick."

"How do you think I feel? I'm living it. I can still taste his blood."

Prue walks in the house.

"Is anybody home?"

"In here."

Prue walks into the room and sits on the side of Paige's couch. She puts down her bag and takes the jar out of Paige's hand to open it without much trouble. She gives it back while glancing suspiciously at her youngest sister. "Don't you have class?" Paige looks up at her while taking a pickle out.

"No, classes are cancelled because of the heat wave. Besides did you only come home to give me a speech?

"No, Morris came to visit." She notices Phoebe with a thermometer in her mouth. "Pheebs, are you ok?"

"I'm so hot." Prue leans forward to touch her forehead while Phoebe gets the thermometer out of her mouth. "100.5 degrees hot."

"But she won't go see a doctor." Paige holds the jar before Piper and Piper also gets a pickle. "What did, uh, Morris want?"

"Help."

She hands Piper the files with the victims' pictures.

"Oh."

Phoebe snatches the files out of Piper's hand and starts scanning trough them. She recognizes the men from her dreams.

"Oh my God. It's the guys. All of them."

Piper gets the files back and hands them to Paige to see. But as soon as Paige sees the pictures, she puts the map back down, not wanting to look any further.

"Phoebe, you were dreaming."

"Of each and every one of the victims? I don't think so. I could see them through my own eyes. Feel every touch, smell every smell.

"How long have you had this feeling?"

"The last four nights."

"Since the murders began."

"Coincidence? I think not."

Piper starts waving a fan in front of Phoebe.

"Well, maybe your powers are growing. Maybe you can get premonitions in your sleep now."

"Or maybe you're just psychically linked to the demon on its wavelength or something."

Pure aided, looking at Paige.

"Or maybe you're just imagining that are the guys you saw in your dream, because you want to have an explanation for your dreams."

"Or maybe I'm the killer. Come on you guys. It's not like there's no precedent. Piper turned into a werewolf once, remember?"

Piper sneers at her.

"A wendigo."

Phoebe sneers back.

"Whatever."

Prue points back to the files.

"Look, if you are psychically connected, maybe you can go to the dating service, touch some of the tapes of the potential suspects, see if you can get a psychic flash."

Piper nods in agreement.

"It's worth the shot. Then I'll stay here and see if I can find anything in the book of shadows."

"I can check these guys and try to make out if they have anything more in common then just the dating service."

Paige picks the files back up.

"I'm sorry. Wait a minute. I tell you that maybe I'm some kind of man-killing demon and you want me to go to the bachelor central?"

"Phoebe, we have to do something. Otherwise someone else is going to die tonight."

Phoebe can't help but agree with Prue.

"Look if you think it will make you feel better, Prue will come with you." Prue looks at Paige. "What, maybe you can get some hints at why your dates aren't working." Prue still glares at her. "What I'm only trying to help."

-c-

Outside Fine Romance Darryl and his partner, Smith, are staking the place. They see Prue and Phoebe and Smith starts taking photos of them.

"Oh, man. Look the racks on those babes, huh?"

"Just do your job, Smith, okay?"

"I am doing my job, Morris. I'm taking pictures of potential suspects. And if you ask me, those two suspects got a lot of potential."

-c-

Once inside, Phoebe and Prue are approached by an attractive blonde.

"Hi, welcome to Fine Romance. I'm Darla. How can I help you?"

Phoebe pushes Prue forward.

"My sister Prue would like to sign up."

"I would?"

"Yes you would while I look around."

"Right."

Phoebe walks away from them. Darla leads Prue towards her desk.

"Well, Prue today is your lucky day. Because we are running a special. One year, unlimited access to our internet and video library, with a money-back guarantee, for only $3,500."

"3,500 bucks? Okay, I could buy a man for that."

Darla sits down. "Oh, I can always tell the frustrated ones. You've been having man troubles lately, haven't you?" Prue looks frustrated.

-c-

While Phoebe is looking around, she isn't paying attention to where she goes. There is then also no surprise when she bumps into a guy.

"Oh... oh."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"I'm sorry. I didn't..." She notices how cute the guy is. "I didn't see you."

"Oh... it's not a problem... it's not a problem at all."

"Uh... uh... do you work here?"

"No, actually I just, uh, I just signed up."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I mean, it's just that... you don't seem like the type that needs help finding date."

"Dito. Oh, um, I'm Owen. Owen Grant."

"Phoebe." As she touches his hand, she gets hit by a premonition of him being killed in the same way as the guys from her dreams. "Uh, uh... I have to... I have to go. Okay, I'm sorry. Excuse me." She backs away.

"But, Phoebe…"

"Sorry."

-c-

Darla hands Prue a paper.

"Congratulations, Prue. Your days of having trouble with men are over. See you at tonight's mixer?"

"Okay, you know, for your information, I do not have man troubles. Financial ones, now, yes. But definitely not man troubles."

Phoebe comes in.

"We're out of here."

"She... you…"

Phoebe pulls Prue with her.

"Okay... it's okay... it's all right."

"I don't. Honestly." Prue turns to Phoebe. "Tell her."

"She doesn't."

-c-

Back at the manor Piper is watching Dan washing his car through the window. Paige walks back in holding the files. She sneaks up behind Piper.

"Did the temperature just rise a notch?"

Piper jumps up from surprise.

"Paige, I didn't hear you coming in."

"Off course not, I suppose the hot neighbour hasn't got anything to do with that, right?"

She pushes Paige back to the couch.

"Alright enough with you."

Prue and Phoebe walk inside.

"Piper? Paige?"

"You're back."

"Find anything interesting?"

Paige gives Prue a meaningful stare.

"No. Did you find anything in the book?"

Everyone looks at Piper.

"The book?"

"Don't mind her, she was too busy looking at something else?"

While Piper grabs the book Paige motions towards the window,

"Uh, I was looking. You should see what I found."

Prue and Phoebe look out the window.

"Oh, I see what you found, all right. Great tan, nice body."

Piper ignores them while reading from the book of shadows. "When a witch renounces all human emotions and makes a pact with darkness to protect herself from heartbreak, she becomes a succubus... a sexual predator."

"Let me see that." Phoebe continues. "She seeks out powerful men who become helpless against her magic, and then feeds on their testosterone with her razor-sharp tongue. So, this monster is an evil sexually-charged witch?"

"Yeah, but it's not you, Phoebe. Because you didn't make a pact with darkness, right?"

"And as far as we know, you don't have a razor-sharp tongue. Here's a spell to attract the succubus and destroy it with fire."

Phoebe reads further.

"A flaming death for yours truly? I don't think so."

"Well, we have to catch this thing, right? So, what if I cast a spell to attract it and if it turns out to be you who's attracted to me, then Paige will stop you with her shield or Piper will freeze the room and we'll go from there. Fair enough?"

Phoebe looks hesitant towards her sisters.

-c-

Prue sits on the floor of the attic in the symbol for male. There are lit candles around it and Piper lays the book of shadows down in front of Prue.

"_By__the__forces__of__heaven__and__hell,__draw__to__us__this__woman__fell,__rend__from__her__foul__desire,__that__she__may__perish__as__a__moth__to__fire._"

Fire burns around Prue. Paige puts up her shield as the flames' heat come towards her, Piper and Phoebe. When the flames go back down, Piper and Paige turn to Phoebe.

"See? I knew it wasn't you."

"I didn't burn. I'm okay."

Suddenly a man's voice answers.

"I'm not."

They turn towards Prue and see a man. They all gasp.

"Oh! Oh my God."

"I don't believe it."

"We have a new problem."

Prue touches her face and feels her beard.

-c-

Piper, Phoebe and Paige are standing outside the bathroom. Piper is sitting down with the book on her lap.

"Prue, please come out."

"Not until you reverse this spell."

"Come on. It's been over an hour already." Phoebe turns to Paige, who is standing behind her. She whispers to her, making sure nor Prue, nor Piper hears her. "Do you think she's touching herself?"

"Those dreams really are starting to effect your thinking, aren't they?"

Piper stands up and stops beside Paige.

"The book doesn't say anything about a reversal. Maybe you're supposed to stay a man until you attract the succubus."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere."

Phoebe turns to Paige again.

"See?"

Not having heard the conversation between Phoebe and Paige, Piper continues encouraging Prue. "You don't really have a choice. I'm thinking we need to get you to the dating service since that's where the succubus picks her victims."

"That's actually a really good idea. She could..." Phoebe rephrases herself. "He can sign up like the rest of the guys."

"Hey, I'm not signing up for anything."

"Lives are at stake, Prue. Innocent men are going to die... we're your sisters, Prue. You don't have to be embarrassed. We're not going to laugh."

"…Hard."

Paige whispers to Phoebe, who tries to hold her laughter already. Piper gives them a mean glare. Prue opens the door.

"How can I save anyone? Okay, I look ridiculous. I'm wearing clothes from the ex-boyfriend's pile." Phoebe and Paige are having it hard holding their laughter. "I have hair in strange places and I have penis." She pushes Phoebe and Paige. "This is not funny." She closes the door again. Piper steps in front of Paige and Phoebe.

"What's matter with you two?"

"I'm sorry. I couldn't help it."

"Prue, you don't have actually to date anyone. All you have to do is make yourself seen and available."

"You know, Prue, the sooner you trap the succubus, the sooner you'll become a woman again."

Prue opens the door again.

"It's easier said than done."

-c-

They all walk downstairs. The sisters are giving Prue hints on the way down.

"Okay, confidence. The walk, the talk, the handshake. It's all about confidence."

"Sports. Men like sports."

"And sincerity... that's the key."

They stop at the base of the stairs, Phoebe starts counting on her fingers. "But what really makes a man are the clothes he wears, the car he drives and the money he earns... according to Cosmo."

"Okay, helping, you're supposed to be helping."

"Okay. Let's work on your walk."

"All you have to do is visualize a man that you admire and then you emulate him. You know, the walk will follow."

"A man that I admire... all right... I got that."

Prue walks elegantly forward and then does a girlie turn at the end.

"The man you admire is Richard Simmons?"

Paige and Phoebe laugh. The doorbell rings, saving Piper from Prue's answer. Phoebe succeeds in stopping to laugh.

"Okay, Paige and I will get Morris' files. Try to put together a list of attributes the succubus is attracted to. You two get the door."

"What?"

"Well, think of it as a practice run for the dating service. Oh, oh... I know. Tom Hanks... everybody loves Tom Hanks. Think of him."

"Tom Hanks."

Prue and Piper answer the door.

"Dan!"

"Hi, I didn't mean to interrupt but my freezer broke and I wanted to see if I could get some ice from you... guys."

Dan looks at Prue.

"Uh, oh, Dan, this is... this is... this is Manny. Manny Hanks. He's my... uh... he's my friend."

"Well, it's nice to meet you."

Dan shakes Prue's hand a little harder than she is used to. Paige screams from the kitchen.

"Piper, come in here, quick."

"Okay, coming." She turns back to Dan. "I'll be right back with that ice."

Piper tries to move towards the kitchen, but Prue stops her.

"Oh, wait, no."

Piper whispers back, "He's a good man." And then continues going to the kitchen. Dan closes the door and Prue turns her attention back to him.

"Have we met before? You look familiar."

Prue looks down to the ground.

"Hmm."

"So, have you known the sisters long?"

"I'm, uh, the brother they never had."

-c-

Piper comes into the kitchen finding Phoebe on the floor. Paige helps her up.

"What happened?"

"Oh, I just... I had one of those hot flashes, the succubus visions. I think I really am psychically connected to that thing. I see what she sees, feel what she feels. I felt excited."

"Excited happy or excited aroused?"

"Piper, she's in heat, okay. And so am I."

"Well, that explains why you are burning up. Your libido must be connected to the succubus'"

"Yeah, it's like I have no control over…" She gets a new flash. "It just happened again. I saw egg sacs. Oh my God. I think she's pregnant or ready to hatch."

"You mean, there's going to be a whole brood of them killing men?"

"Unless we stop her, I think that's exactly her plan."

-c-

Dan is still talking to Prue, while she is trying to copy his moves.

"So, Piper isn't seeing anyone?"

"No, not really."

"So Piper is seeing someone?"

"No, not really... God. I would just hate to see her with a guy who, oh, let's say on the third date just runs away. Don't you just hate men like that?"

"I don't know any men like that."

"Oh... ha... How about those niners?"

She gives a girly smile, but is saved when Piper, Phoebe and Paige walk back in. Piper hands Dan his ice.

"Ok, here's your ice."

"Thanks."

"Oh, you're welcome." Phoebe helps him out the door. "Ok, bye bye. Take care. Tell Jenny we said hi, ok? All right, good."

Piper turns towards Prue.

"So?"

"We're in big problems... huge."

-c-

Back at Fine Romance, Prue is doing her videotape.

"You know, I think that it's the smaller things that I look for in a relationship, you know, like... listen to your partner, kindness, respect, I mean, as far as I'm concerned there's nothing sexier, nothing hotter than someone who respects him... herself, because, you know, if she respects herself, then she respects others."

The woman behind the camera is impressed.

"Can I just say that you are really in touch with your feminine side."

"You have no idea."

-c-

Her sisters are standing at the reception, where Phoebe is asking questions.

"His name is Owen. He signed up earlier today."

"Hm. Dr. Owen Grant."

"Doctor? Hmm... yeah. I guess that's him. Do you have any way I could get in touch with him? It's really important."

"Well, you could join for $3,500 and view his tape."

"Hmm... huh! Piper?"

She motions towards Darla, the receptionist.

"Hmm? Hmm!"

Piper freezes the room. Phoebe gets Dr. Owen's file. Then she sees Dan's files.

"I do not believe it."

"What?"

"Looks like neighbour Dan signed up, too... interested?"

Piper smiles. Phoebe hands her Dan's file.

"Let's go."

They leave.

-c-

Outside Fine Romance, Darryl is still staking out with his new partner.

"Boy, a guy could do some serious damage in there, you know? Just drop all the pretence and go all caveman."

"You're really something, you know that, Smith?"

"I know it. That's what ladies tell me... Man, it's boiling."

"Yes, it is."

"I think I'll do a little investigating inside."

Smith opens the car door.

"Oh, Whoa! No. You're not going anywhere."

"Come on. It's a mixer, right? I want to go inside and mix it up."

He gets out of the car followed by Darryl.

-c-

Back inside Fine Romance, Phoebe and Piper are looking trough the files, while Paige is standing before them, checking everyone in the room.

"Do you think the succubus already got the Owen?" Paige turns towards Phoebe. "I mean, what if we're too late?"

"You would have had a psychic flash if we were and since you haven't, we're not."

Phoebe suddenly notices him, coming in.

"Oh, there he is... hey, you know... maybe I should take him back to the manor to keep him safe."

"You and him? At the Manor? Alone?"

Phoebe looks innocently towards Piper.

"Well, I'm just going to talk to him."

"Well, we can just talk to him here. I'm going to go back to the video area and, uh, check up on Prue."

"Uh, huh... don't forget Dan's tape."

Piper grabs Dan's tape and leaves. Owen notices Phoebe and Phoebe stands up to go to him.

"You know what, I'll leave you guys alone for a while."

Paige smiles at Phoebe before going towards the other side of the room. Phoebe walks over to Owen.

"Hi."

"Hi."

-c-

Prue is still in the video area talking to the woman who made the video.

"So, what are you saying is my video will now be available to all of your clients. So what with internet access, I should be able to meet women as soon as when?"

"Mr. Hanks. Something tells me that you could be dating as soon as tomorrow. This is one great tape."

She holds the video up, making Prue confused.

-c-

In another section of the video area, Piper is watching Dan's tape.

"I'm sorry. I... I... I just... I can't do this."

"Oh, come on. Your sister paid for this, Mr. Gordon. You can do it."

"Oh... this just isn't me."

"Give it a try. Just speak from your heart. What are you looking for in a woman?"

"What do I look for? I don't know. I'm an old-fashioned, I guess. I look for the girl-next-door. Someone with a good heart, good personality, and looks to match. The kind of girl that... when I leave for work in the morning... I wait just... a little bit... till she leaves for work too. Just to catch a glimpse of that long dark hair, that great smile, hoping that maybe, one day... she'll notice that I'm watching her. Then she'll smile back at me."

Piper just smiles.

-c-

Back in the common area, Phoebe and Owen are sitting down on one of the couches.

"Do you, huh, do you want to get out of here and take a walk or something?"

"Uh, I...I...I... would... I would love to. Really. But... but I can't."

"You can't. Why?"

"Uh, it's hard, I mean, to explain, you know? Is it really hot in here?"

"You know what? I'm going to get you something to drink. I'll be right back."

Owen gets up. "Ok." Phoebe gets a new flash, seeing that the succubus is at the party. "Oh, no... She's here..." She sees Paige on the other side of the room. "Paige!" She gets up, but Owen stops her from going to Paige.

"Hey, what's going on? Are you ok?"

She gets the two drinks Owen is holding out of his hands and puts them back down on the table.

"Yeah. We need to get you out of here, fast. Okay? Follow me. Uh, if you could just stand here for a minute and just stay in my sight, ok?"

"Okay."

She quickly runs over to Paige.

"Uh. She's here. I felt her."

"What? Where is she?"

"I don't know but she's in the room, somewhere. She could be after Owen."

"Well, then get him out of here. Fast!"

"Ok."

Smith grabs Phoebe's wrist

"Oh, where are you going, honey?"

"Excuse me."

"I'd like to have a little talk with you... in private."

Paige comes over to Phoebe's side right when she gets a new flash. She sees Owen in her vision. Darryl also comes up to them.

"What the hell's the matter with you, Smith? Let her go."

Smith lets her go. Phoebe sees Prue and Piper entering.

"Manny, it's Owen... take him out. Fast."

Prue runs over to Owen and punches him in the face. Phoebe runs over to Owen, who is getting up, holding his cheek. Piper takes Prue by the arm.

"What are you doing? Your... Your powers."

Smith stops Prue.

"Hey hey, that's enough, all right. You're under arrest"

Prue punches him too and Smith goes flying over the table. Darryl takes Prue in his cuffs.

"That's it. You're under arrest, pal. Get up and cuff the other, Smith."

Smith cuffs Owen. Paige and Phoebe get over to Piper, who is pointing towards Prue.

"This is... this is bad. This is really bad."

Phoebe gets another flash seeing Darryl moving Prue out of the room.

"It's getting worse."

"Huh?"

"The succubus isn't attracted to Owen anymore. She's attracted to Prue."

"Perfect."

-c-

The girls, minus Prue, are talking to Darryl.

"Want to me to release him? Your friend punched a cop."

"Four men have died in last four nights, but none so far tonight. Why do you think that is?"

"Because of Manny, that's why."

"And if he stays in jail, another innocent man might get killed."

"I suppose you want me to release this, uh... this Dr. Owen Grant, too, huh?"

"Uh, no, actually. He's still a potential victim. As long as he's here, he's safe. You can't let him out."

"This is going to bite me in the ass. I know it is."

-c-

The next morning, Prue walks into the living room. Paige is sitting on the couch, trying to open a can of pickles. On the other couch, Phoebe is lying down, with a thermometer in her mouth.

"You know, I'm surprised we men ever get anything done, you know. All I seem to think about is sex. It's like it's nonstop. Really debilitating."

Prue takes the jar out of Paige's hands and opens it without trouble. Paige takes a pickle out of the jar.

"Really, that's kind of disturbing."

Phoebe sits up straight, so Prue can also sit down on the couch.

"Hey, did you fix the air conditioning."

"Yeah, I just had to clean the filter. Air flow clog must have thrown the breaker."

Both Phoebe and Paige look at her, Prue shrugs her shoulders. Piper walks in holding the phone.

"Guess who that was? Alan, from Bucklands."

"Alan... wait? He actually called."

"Yeah and he wants to go out with you again. So much for our rejection theory."

"Well, what did you tell him?"

"I went out on a limb and told him you were feeling a bit hormonal."

Phoebe takes out the thermometer.

"102.5 degrees. Probably normal for succubus."

"But not so good for you. I really think you should call a doctor."

"And what is she going to say to the doctor Piper. I think I'm being influenced by a succubus."

"Paige is right, there's nothing a doctor can do. It's the connection with succubus. It's getting stronger. Probably because she missed her nightly feeding. She didn't get Owen or Prue. She needs to kill. I can feel it."

"Ok, what are we going to do?"

"All right, I got a plan. The dating service called. Turns out my video broke some kind of house record. 20 hits this morning. One of them might to be succubus. So I lined up dates with all of them."

"What?"

"Yep! At your club. Starting at 6."

"Oh, no no no no. Not tonight. The Cranberries are coming in for a sound check before the benefit tomorrow. I can't risk scaring them away."

"That's no problem. I'll just nail the succubus before they get there."

Paige grins at Prue.

"Oh, you're going to nail her, are you? Oh, so this whole man thing, this sort of short-circuits the old maybe I should consult my sisters wiring, now, doesn't it? Just step right in and take over."

Piper steps over to the window and stares out.

"Didn't start happening until she sucker-punched Owen."

"You had a problem, I fixed it."

"Oh, you bet your butt, you did. You nearly broke his jaw."

"I saved his life. Look, you're the one who told me I had to practice being a man, right? So I acted on instinct. And tell you the truth, the moment that I hit him, I felt powerful and strong. Like somehow that made me a man."

Piper walks back over to her sisters.

"You want to know how to be a real man? Look at Dan. Honest, kind, good heart. The type of guy who would risk being late to work just to make you smile. Not some bully who walks around thinking one punch is going to change anything."

She leaves.

"She learned all that, just from looking out a window?"

Prue, Phoebe and Paige stand up and look out a window. They see Dan working on his car.

"Oh, yeah! Nice body."

"Great tan."

"Awesome truck."

Phoebe and Paige look at Prue confused.

"You know, I think you really are becoming a man."

-c-

That night Darryl and Smith are staking outside of P4. Smith is looking at his black eye in the mirror.

"Ow, man... look at that. Look at that. I can hardly even see out of that and you let him walk."

"Try looking at the club for a while. Sooner we catch the killer, sooner I can have you reassigned."

"Fine."

-c-

Phoebe, Piper and Paige are standing at the bar.

"I just hope that the succubus gets here fast because I'm dying."

"Okay, focus on the plan. Manny lures the succubus into the alley and then I freeze her and..."

"And then he uses his testosterone-charged powers to fend her off until she burst into flames. I got it."

Phoebe sees Prue checking out a woman's but. She pokes Paige and Paige notices it too.

"Uh, did Manny just check out that girl's butt?"

Piper also looks around.

"Oh, God. This is starting to get weird."

"It's starting to get weird? Where ya been?"

-c-

Prue is sitting at the bar enjoying her drink, when a guys sits down next to her, ordering a drink.

"Hey"

"Hey..." She recognizes Alan. "You don't recognize me, do you?"

"No, sorry. Should I?"

"Uh, I work at Bucklands with Prue Halliwell. Manny, Manny Hanks."

They shake hands.

"Alan Stanton. Nice to meet you. So, you know Prue, huh?"

"Yeah, we go way back."

"Huh, Prue and I actually dated. Few times. When it comes to dating these days, I just can't figure out what they want. It's a real confusing time to be a man."

"You mean, like in... huh, what way?"

"Like every way. Even opening doors or pulling out chairs. Some women expect it. Other women hate it. You never know which camp they're in until it's too late."

"Which camp do you think Prue's in?"

"Prue? The good one. The one that likes it. She's cool."

"I had no idea... I mean, I bet she had no idea. Have you told her?"

"Are you kidding? Probably scare her away if I haven't already."

-c-

Piper is looking around P4.

"Where's Prue? I lost her... him."

"She's over there talking with A..."

Phoebe gets a flash. The succubus is in P4.

"What?"

"The Succubus. She's here. I'm seeing what she's seeing."

"What? Where is she?"

"She's here somewhere. She just spotted Prue." She notices a woman down the bar. "Wait... isn't that the woman from the dating service? The one that videotaped Prue?"

-c-

"I mean, you know, Prue. She's on the rebound. And I respect her too much to force the issue. I didn't want to move too fast. Although I think about it now, maybe I went too slow and got her mad at me. Some damn confusing rules, you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I'm beginning to."

Prue's cell phone rings.

"Yeah."

"Prue, she's here. Get to the alley, quick. It's Jane from the dating service. The one with the red dress."

"Right on my way." She puts her phone down and turns to Alan. "Sorry, Alan, Got to go."

-c-

Phoebe and Paige corner Jane.

"Hi hi hi hi... Jane. Right? From a Fine Romance?"

"Yes... have we met?"

Phoebe gets a new flash and sees that the succubus is in the alley alone with Prue.

"It's not you."

"What?" Paige tries to grab Phoebe, but she is already running away. "I'm sorry about that. Order the strawberry cocktail, it's really good. And have a good evening." She turns towards where Phoebe went. "Phoebe!"

-c-

Darla comes out of the shadow in the alley.

"Hello, Manny."

Prue tries to use her power but she can't.

"What's happening to me?"

Darla starts walking towards Prue.

"You're falling in love. You want me. You need me. Tell me I'm irresistible. Tell me."

"You're irresistible."

Darla is about to use her razor-sharp tongue when Piper, Paige and Phoebe show up and Piper freezes her. Prue comes towards her sisters.

"Whoa! What happened? Why didn't you use your power?"

"I don't know. I was trying to use it and it wouldn't work. And then I felt like I was... huh."

"Impotent?"

"You know, a little advice about men, Phoebe. When we fail at something, generally we don't like to hear that we're..."

"Impotent?"

"Yeah!"

Darla unfreezes.

"Oh, no."

Smith and Darryl show up. Smith gets his badge out.

"Freeze right there."

She knocks him out and he flies into some boxes. She starts running towards Darryl, who is holding out his gun.

"Stop or I'll shoot. Stop"

She stops but gets out her razor-sharp tongue. Darryl sees no other option and shoots her.

"She's dead. But I don't know what that was? You guys ok?"

He turns towards the girls.

"I think so."

Prue leans into Phoebe.

"Okay, how come I'm still a man?"

-c-

Smith is talking to the coroner who just put a blanket over Darla's head.

"Toxicology won't be back for a week but the preliminary blood panel did show something odd. This woman's endocrine system showed high level of testosterone"

"Testosterone? How's that even possible?"

"Won't know for certain until the autopsy but if it turns out to be accurate, you've definitely got the killer you've been looking for."

"I'm telling you, there's something really weird about this." Smith looks back at the body. "It's a real shame. She's a babe."

The coroner leaves. Smith starts following him, but can't help himself from going back to peak under the blanket. When he pulls it from her head, her eyes open and her tongue invades Smith's mouth.

-c-

Piper and Prue are in the attic, Piper is looking trough the book of shadows.

"I don't understand. It says to attract and destroy the succubus. She will come to us and burst into flames."

"Well, it came all right but it certainly didn't burst. And worse, I'm still a man. What I don't understand is why wasn't I able to use my powers?"

"I don't know."

Piper looks out the window.

"You know, men are just as afraid of being rejected as women are. Trust me. That's probably why Dan hasn't asked you out. He's afraid you'll say no."

"Like you'd know." She turns towards Prue. "Do you?"

"I'm a guy, aren't I?"

Phoebe and Paige walk in.

"Guys, the succubus. She's still alive. I felt her kill again."

"Oh, no!"

"Why wasn't I able to destroy her?"

"We can still finish this."

"How? I mean, she knocked me out, guys. I mean, really. It was like I was in a trance. I was weak in the knees and for a moment I felt her need not to be rejected as though it would devastate her."

Piper puts the book of shadows down.

"Great. We're dealing with a sensitive man-killing demon."

"Well, we got to be missing something. You three keep looking. I got to go take a leak."

Piper, Phoebe and Paige answer simultaneously.

"Don't forget to put the seat back down."

Prue waves her hand in annoyance as she walks down the hall.

"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah."

Phoebe gets a new flash. She sees the Darla coming out of the shower and coming towards Prue.

"Phoebe!"

"She's here. The succubus... She's in the house."

They hear a noise like something braking.

"Prue!"

-c-

The girls run into the bathroom but there is no one there. "Prue? Where'd she go?" They see the broken window.

-c-

Prue is lying on a bed while Darla is coming towards her. "I watched your tape over and over again. The things you said, I..." She sits down on the side of the bed. "You can't resist me."

-c-

Piper, Phoebe and Paige are sitting in the attic again. Phoebe is sitting down, with her head in her arms.

"We have to find Prue, Phoebe. Or she's dead."

"I'm connected again. I'm seeing Prue. She's alive."

"Where is she?"

"The same place the others victims were but I don't know where that is. God. I'm going to watch her kill Prue end there's nothing I can do about it."

Paige slams the book close.

"There is nothing in here that can help us."

Piper sits down next to Phoebe.

"Wait. Listen to me. I have an idea. If you're connected to the succubus, then the succubus is connected to you, right?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You have to reverse the psychic connection. You have to use your power to project back to the succubus to help Prue resist her. What's the succubus saying?"

Phoebe gets another flash.

_Darla is kneeling above Prue._

"_Tell me you want me."_

"_I want you."_

Phoebe turns back to reality.

"She wants Prue to want her."

"Ok, talk through the succubus. Tell Prue that she doesn't want her. She'll never want her. Tell her."

Phoebe turns back to the room.

_Darla is now saddling Prue._

"_Tell me you need me."_

"_I need you."_

Piper keeps motivating Phoebe.

"Talk to Prue like she's right in front of you, Phoebe. Um, tell her that she is not a man. She's a woman."

"_You're not a man. You're a woman."_

_Darla says Phoebe's words. Prue repeats them._

"_I'm a woman."_

_Darla looks confused._

"_What?"_

"_You can resist Prue. Only a man is powerless against me."_

_Phoebe is talking trough Darla, who is only getting more confused._

"_I can resist you. In fact, I'm rejecting you."_

_Darla gets off the bed, Prue too._

"_What? You can't resist me. I'm irresistible."_

"_Not to me, you're not, you bitch."_

_Prue uses her power against Darla and she flies into a closet, letting candles fall to the floor. She lit the clothes in the closet and Darla also bursts into flames. "Nooooooo!" Darla vanishes. Prue turns into a woman again. _

-c-

Piper and Paige are bending over Phoebe.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. And so is Prue."

"What about the succubus?"

"She's dead"

-c-

That night at P4, Prue comes down the stairs wearing a sexy outfit. She walks towards her sisters.

"Oh... Well, well. And I thought the heat wave was over."

"Yeah, Prue. You look hot."

Phoebe and Paige start waving their hands towards Prue, while they start walking towards the bar.

"I'm just grateful to be back in heels."

Piper stands back.

"Let me see. Oh, yeah. You definitely have that walk down."

"Well, we'll see if Alan agrees with that."

"Alan? I thought you thought he wasn't interested."

"Yeah, I was wrong. Just a little gender confusion."

They sit down at the bar and Piper moves behind the bar.

"Looks like you learned a few things about being a woman by being a man."

"Actually, I did. I mean, we're different, which I'm glad about. But we're also similar in many ways. You know, we all feel the same emotions. It's just that if we don't communicate honestly, then we read between the lines and tend to get everything screwed up."

"And sometimes it's just up to us to open the door first..." Piper notices Dan. "To take a chance." Her sisters turn around and notice him too.

"Oh, you finally called him, huh?"

"I got some good advice from the brother I never had. Excuse me."

"You're welcome."

She goes to meet Dan.

"So, what about you, Pheebs?"

"Me, Uh?" She sees Owen "I actually have an appointment with a doctor I've been dying to see. I'm still running a little bit hot."

"I see that. He winked at you."

Phoebe goes to meet Owen. Prue turns towards Paige.

"Peter is busy tonight, but don't worry, I can still have fun without him."

The Cranberries starts to play.

"I'm sure you can."

They laugh at each other.

-c-

Piper walks up to Dan.

"Glad you could make it."

"Are you kidding? I'm just glad you called. Truth is I've been waiting to call you for some time now."

"Really? I never would guess."

"You want to dance?"

"Sure."

They join Phoebe and Owen and start to dance.

-c-

Paige sees Alan coming towards them and gets up to join her other sisters.

"Alan, hey... Good to see you."

"I'm glad you called back, Prue. I have to admit. I didn't think you would."

"Well, I wasn't going to at first. But then I met this really nice guy who encouraged me to go ahead."

"Yeah? Who is he? I want to thank him."

"Oh, no. I'll thank him..." Prue stands up and points to the podium. "Cranberries."

"Let's go."


End file.
